i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, I 

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J UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. J 






THE 



SEAL OF HEAVEN 



OR 



THE IMPRESSION OF DIVINE TRUTH 



ON 



A CANDID MIND. 



BY EEV. J. B. JETER, D. D. 



"If any man will do His will, lie shall know of the doctrine, whether it be 
of God, or whether I speak of myself." Joim 1 : 17. 



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AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by the American 
Tract Society, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 






CONTENTS. 



Introduction ••- -- page 5 

CHAPTER I. 
Man's Religious Instinct 11 

CHAPTER II. 

Provision for supplying Man's Religious Wants 19 

CHAPTER III. 

The Religion suited to Man--- 26 

CHAPTER IY. 
An Epitome of the Gospel • - - 42 

CHAPTER V. 

The Spirit in which the Gospel should be examined 49 

CHAPTER VI. 
Attention to the Gospel - 56 

CHAPTER VII. 
The World's Treatment of the Gospel 63 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The God and Law of the Bible 70 



4 CONTENTS. 

> 

CHAPTER IX. 
Conviction of Sin - - ---- 78 

CHAPTER X. 
Salvation not of Works 85 

CHAPTER XI. 
Reception of the Gospel - 92 

CHAPTER XII. 
Saving Power of the Gospel - 99 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Conflict -- 113 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Consolation 120 

CHAPTER XV. 
Freedom from the Fear of Death - 128 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Diversity and Unity of Christian Experience - 135 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Witnesses of the Self-evidencing Power of the Gospel 142 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Objections to the Gospel - 170 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Conclusion - 18S 




INTRODUCTION, 




IjS CHRISTIANITY TRUE? 



'HIS is tlie most momentous question that 
can possibly engage the attention of mortals. 
WJf ^& Upon its solution depend, in a large meas- 
ure, their duties, interests, and destinies. We do 
not propose in this discussion to assume its truth; 
but we do insist that it bears such marks of credibil- 
ity as to demand, most reasonably and urgently, of 
all men, an earnest and candid consideration of its 
claims. If it be true, they reject it at the peril of 
their souls. No person, intelligent and sober-mind- 
ed, will maintain that it is so obviously false as not 
to deserve examination. At any rate our remarks 
are addressed only to such as desire to know whether 
it be of God or of men. 

Christianity cannot exert a saving influence except 
as it is believed. It sheds no divine light on the 
mind, and exerts no renewing power over the affec- 



6 INTKODTJCTLON. 

tions and life of him who rejects it. If it be of 
God, we may reasonably conclude that he has fur- 
nished ample evidence of its truth. This proof may 
not be so clear and vivid as to force men to receive 
it; but it must be sufficiently plain and conclusive 
to satisfy inquiring, attentive, and truth-loving minds. 
We can scarcely suppose that God would reveal to 
t^e world a system of religion involved in so much 
obscurity and doubt that intelligent, thoughtful, and 
candid men could not discover the proofs of its divine 
origin. 

It is cause of gratitude to the divine Author of 
Christianity that the proofs of its truth are so vari- 
ous, clear, and satisfactory. Its divinity may be 
established by numerous independent lines of argu- 
ment. We have, first, historical proofs of the truth 
of Christianity. These include the prophecies of the 
Old Testament, preserved by the Jews themselves, 
having a remarkable fulfilment in the life of Jesus of 
Nazareth — his miracles, and the wonders attending 
his birth, death, resurrection, and ascension, record- 
ed by competent and credible witnesses — and the 
early, rapid, and extensive spread and triumph of 
the gospel, by agencies feeble and contemptible in 
the estimation of the world, and in spite of popular 
and established systems of religion, and the com- 
bined power of priests and kings, Jews and Gentiles ; 
all of which is confirmed by unexceptionable contem- 
porary writers, both Christian and pagan. We have 
next internal evidences that Christianity is of God. 
These are derived from the harmony of the inspired 
writers, of different centuries and diversified circum- 



IS CHRISTIANITY TRUE? 7 

stances, among themselves ; their writings all con- 
spiring to the accomplishment of the same end — the 
agreement of then revelations with the histories and 
monuments of antiquity, which have come down to 
our time, and which agreement appears the more 
astonishing in proportion as these ancient memorials 
have been more carefully examined — and the obvi- 
ous adaptation of the gospel to man's intellectual, 
moral, and immortal nature. 

These proofs have been elaborated, and present- 
ed to the world in countless volumes ; and they con- 
stitute a mass of evidence perfectly conclusive. By 
it skeptics have been confounded and believers have 
been confirmed, in all ages. It is an impregnable 
fortress, against which the shafts of infidelity have 
been unavailing. No system, secular or religious, 
has ever passed through such a fiery ordeal as Chris- 
tianity. Its enemies have put in requisition all the 
resources of genius, literature, science, and ridicule 
to overcome it ; and yet it stands,. and the more firmly 
because of the attacks which have been made upon 
it. Men believe a thousand things, and adventure 
their property, reputation, and lives on the strength 
of their belief, on less than a tithe of the testimony 
in confirmation of the gospel to which we have 
referred. 

Not one Christian, however, in a hundred em- 
braces Christianity from the force of these argu- 
ments. Few persons have the capacity, the inclina- 
tion, the patience, the means, and the time to exam- 
ine, weigh, and judge of them. Had the salvation 
of men been made to depend on their studying and 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

mastering these proofs, with most of them salvation 
would be impossible. Occasionally a person of cul- 
tivated and inquiring mind becomes a Christian at 
the close of a long-continued, minute, and honest 
investigation of the historical and internal proofs of 
the celestial origin of Christianity ; but a large ma- 
jority of Christians embrace it from an entirely dif- 
ferent class of proofs. These we denominate the 
experimental evidences of Christianity. They are de- 
rived from the power which it exerts over the mind, 
conscience, affections, and life of its subject. The 
gospel — another name for Christianity — is a living, 
active, renovating power, of which those who em- 
brace it are conscious. Its truth, its vitality, its effi- 
cacy, are known by experience. 

We may illustrate the nature of this evidence by 
a familiar case. Suppose the question to be as to 
the efficacy of a popular medicine. There are three 
independent sources of proof of its curative power. 
There is, first, the testimony of credible witnesses, 
who have observed or experienced its efficacy: this 
is historical or external evidence. Then we may be 
convinced by a knowledge of its chemical and thera- 
peutic properties, of its healing power : this is scien- 
tific or internal evidence. Lastly, we may be assured 
of its virtue by its effects on our own person : this is 
experimental evidence. This kind of proof is deci- 
dedly the most direct, clear, and satisfactory. Now 
of the truth of "the record that God gave of his 
Son," we have all these classes of evidence — the his- 
torical, the internal, and the experimental. It is of 
the last kind that we propose to treat. 



IS CHRISTIANITY TRUE ? 9 

This class of evidence lias not, we think, received 
the careful attention which its importance demands. 
We have numerous and most valuable works on 
the Evidences of Christianity; but, so far as we 
know, not a single volume on its experimental 
proofs. These have been frequently referred to, and 
briefly and incidentally discussed; but never made 
the subject of a separate and carefully prepared 
treatise. 

A prejudice has existed, especially among the 
literary classes, against religious experience. It 
had its origin, in part at least, in the extravagant 
fancies and dreams which, among enthusiasts, have 
been mistaken for Christian experience, or by the 
ignorant and undiscernirjg, have been blended 
with it. 

But why should prejudice be indulged against 
religious experience? Is not most of our knowl- 
edge, in all departments of business, and in many 
sciences, derived from experience? Is it not inval- 
uable in the professions,- in agriculture, in mercantile 
operations, in mechanical employments, in every- 
thing that pertains to human welfare and progress ? 
The value of all inventions and discoveries is tested 
by experience. We frequently hear remarks from 
the wisest lips in disparagement of speculative in 
comparison with experimental knowledge. Why 
should we accept experience as a test of philoso- 
phy, and reject it as a test of Christianity? If the 
gospel is true, it must have power ; if it has power, 
it may be experienced ; and this experience must be 
the best evidence of its truth and efficacy. This 

L* 



10 



INTRODUCTION, 



reasoning is in harmony with the plain teaching of 
revelation: "If any man," said Jesus, "will do 
His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it 
be of God, or whether I speak of myself." John 
7:17. 





THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 



CHAPTEE I. 




,. some form, is his supreme necessity. 
&m irrational animals 



MAN'JS r^EJ^iQIOUg INJ3TJNCT. 



OD lias so constituted man that eeligion, in 

All 
are endowed with in- 
stincts, or natural impulses, for their preservation and 
perfection, and the propagation of their species. Gui- 
ded by these, the fox finds its den, the bird builds its 
nest, and the bee constructs its cells and gathers its 
honey. Man, endowed with reason, is less depend- 
ent on instinct than irrational creatures ; but he too 
has his instincts. He is an intellectual being, and 
has instincts suited to his nature. Curiosity is an 
instinctive desire of knowledge. It is among the 
earliest, as it is among the strongest, appetencies of 
the infantile mind. Its development does not de- 
pend on education ; indeed, no discipline can extin- 
guish or restrain it. It is this instinct which puts 



12 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

questions, and often questions which parents cannot 
answer, into the mouths of little children. What 
sprightly child has not asked the question, "Who 
made the world ?" and that deeper question, " Who 
made God?" This thirst for knowledge carries the 
boy through the wearisome lessons of the school- 
room, and the youth through the more intricate and 
perplexing studies of the academy and the college. 
This appetite is insatiable. " The eye is not satis- 
fied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." 
The more a man learns, the more profoundly is he 
convinced of his need of knowledge. This omniv- 
erous longing for information impels him to pursue 
the most laborious researches, to undertake the most 
perilous journeys, to lavish the most abundant treas- 
ures, and to exhaust his whole life in self-denying 
efforts to gratify it. 

' ' Were man to live coeval with the sun, 
The patriarch pupil would be learning still, 
And dying, leave his lesson half unlearned." 

Can any one doubt that man's desire of knowl- 
edge is an instinct, implanted by the Creator for wise 
and benevolent purposes? It is a demonstration 
that man is not a mere animal ; that he is an intelli- 
gent being ; that he is susceptible of vast and indefi- 
nite progress in mental discipline and knowledge; 
and that he can accomplish his high destiny only by 
thoroughly training and fully maturing his intellec- 
tual powers. Curiosity is an instinct of the mind. 

That man has social instincts, none will deny. The 
love of society is a controlling element of his nature. 
Parental and filial affections are among the strongest 



MAN'S EELIGIOUS INSTINCT. 13 

impulses of his heart; and these feelings expand 
naturally into a love that embraces other kindred, 
with friends, acquaintances, and countrymen. Amid 
the cares of business, the splendors of wealth, and 
the pleasures of indulgence, man pines for society. 
The millionaire would surrender his riches, the king 
his crown, and the ambitious man his glory, to 
secure it. A life of absolute solitude is inflicted as, 
next to death itself, the last and severest form of 
human punishment. This social instinct is eradica- 
ted only in rare cases, in men of morbid tempera- 
ment, disappointed ambition, or perverted religious 
views. Its almost universal prevalence and its 
moulding influence over human life evince its divine 
origin ; and its tendency to promote the happiness of 
men demonstrates its benign purpose. 

It is not more evident that man is an intellectual 
and social than that he is a moral and religious being. 
He is endowed with an instinctive and irrepressible 
longing after the infinite. He has an inherent dis- 
cernment of good and evil — of right and wrong — of 
the beautiful and the deformed. It may be dim, 
amid the darkness of heathenism, or may be per- 
verted by false teaching ; but it can never be whoUy 
obscured. " When the Gentiles, which have not the 
[written] law, do by nature the things contained in 
the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto 
themselves : which show the work of the law written 
in then hearts, then consciences also bearing wit- 
ness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or 
else excusing one another." Considerate man has 
a consciousness of ignorance, weakness, sinfulness, 



14 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

guilt, and misery, which constrains him to look be- 
yond himself to some invisible and superior Being, 
to whom he is responsible for his conduct, on whom 
he is dependent for " life and breath and all things," 
and from whom he hopes for support, guidance, and 
comfort. 

The proofs that man is created with a religious 
instinct are various, clear, and incontrovertible. It 
has been frequently and aptly said that he is a reli- 
gious animal; and it may be truly added that he is 
the only religious animal. No inhabitant of the 
earth, except man, has or can have a religion. 
Brutes .have wonderful instincts ; but they are not 
religious instincts. They may be taught many 
things ; but they cannot be instructed in the knowl- 
edge and worship of God. There is an impassable 
gulf between man — the intellectual, social, moral, 
religious being — and all the tribes of irrational ani- 
mals. Man, we repeat, has a religious element in 
his nature. He may not only be taught religion; 
but no instruction, training, force, or reward, can 
prevent him, except in rare and peculiar cases, from 
being in some sense religious. 

The history of mankind is the history of reli- 
gion. Adam, the progenitor of the race, was, ac- 
cording to Scripture, created in "the image of God," 
and that likeness, as defined by Paul, consisted in 
"righteousness and true holiness." Eve, formed from 
Adam, partook of his nature, intellectual, social, and 
religious. Amid the bloom and fruits of Paradise 
they offered their grateful homage to the Author of 
their being and the Source of their blessings. Sin 



MAN'S RELIGIOUS INSTINCT. 15 

marred the beauty of Paradise, but did not destroy 
the religious element of humanity. This instinct 
survived the fall. The first two sons of Adam brought 
their offerings to the Lord. Cain, a tiller of the 
ground, an ungodly man — a type of the ritual and 
self-sufficient worshippers of all time — brought his 
bloodless and unacceptable offering. Abel, a keeper 
of sheep, a righteous man — a representative of the 
true worshippers in all ages — brought " of the first- 
lings of his flock and the fat thereof" to the altar, 
and presented them in faith as a sweet sacrifice to 
God. In the antediluvian period, though men be- 
came exceedingly corrupt, the religious element of 
man evinced its power. There were in those days of 
darkness "sons of God," and men who called on 
"the name of the Lord." When the race had 
reached its greatest degeneracy, Noah and his fam- 
ily were found righteous and walking with God. 

The history of the postdiluvian race is a contin- 
uous testimony to the existence and power of its 
religious instinct. Mankind, soon after the deluge, 
were dispersed into different parts of the earth. 
Through the direct intervention of divine power, the 
action of physiological laws, originally impressed on 
men, or by climatic influence, they were early sep- 
arated into various races, tribes, and families, speak- 
ing diverse languages, adopting widely different cus- 
toms and habits, living under dissimilar forms of 
government, and developing numerous types of civ- 
ilization. So greatly do the races of men differ in 
complexion, form, languages, habits, and traditions, 
that their identity of origin has been stoutly denied 



16 THE SEAL OP HEAVEN. 

by many men of science. We believe, however, in 
the unity of the race, on what seems to be the plain 
teaching of revelation ; and it has not been shown, 
and we judge that it can never be shown, that the 
differences in the human races are not of post-No- 
achan origin. 

Under all the diversified circumstances in which 
men have been placed, and under which their char- 
acters have been formed, they have maintained -some 
form of religion. In all ages, in all climates, under 
all forms of government, in every stage and phase 
of civilization, and through all the changes wrought 
by wars, commerce, science, literature, and the com- 
mingling of races and families, men have had their 
temples, their altars, their sacrifices, their priests, 
their devotions, their theology, and their gods. Na- 
tions may have been found without money, or com- 
merce, or navies, or armies, or literature, or arts, 
except the rudest ; but not without forms of worship, 
or some superstitious rites, having respect to the 
invisible and the spiritual. If any tribes have been 
without the knowledge of God and without religious 
rites, they have belonged to the lowest and most 
brutalized of the race, retaining the form without the 
intellect and aspirations of man. Their native in- 
stincts have been repressed by the darkness, degra- 
dation, and ferocity of barbarism. Individuals have 
appeared, in civilized and religious communities, who 
have proclaimed their total destitution of any sense 
of -religious obligation. We have known a few per- 
sons of this class. Some of them, it is not unchar- 
itable to think, are hypocritical. In health and 



MAN'S KELIGIOUS INSTINCT. 17 

prosperity they boast of their infidelity and of their 
freedom from priestly domination; hi sickness and 
adversity they are filled with terror, and supplicate 
divine aid. To others of this class we may accord 
sincerity, without endangering the truth for which 
we are contending. They are not representative 
men. Their minds have been perverted by false 
training, or their consciences have been blunted by 
vicious indulgence, or strong prejudices have blinded 
their hearts, or the desire to be singular has coun- 
teracted their instinctive tendencies. At any rate, 
we cannot more correctly judge of the normal moral 
constitution of man by this idiosyncrasy, than we 
can judge of his normal physical form by the goi- 
trous inhabitants of the Alpine regions. 

In view of the considerations which have been 
presented, we ask any candid man whether the uni- 
versal prevalence of religion can be accounted for, 
without admitting that it originated in man's instinct- 
ive aspiration after God. It cannot be traced, with- 
out gross absurdity, to education, fashion, interest, 
imposture, or force. Its cause must be pervasive, 
mighty, uniform, and perpetual. Nothing short of 
an immutable law of the Creator can fully explain 
the fact. 

Man must be religious. His religion may be 
true or false, wise or foolish, good or bad, holy or 
unholy, tend to exalt or to degrade him ; but a reli- 
gion he will have. Religion may be perverted, op- 
posed, persecuted; but it cannot be abolished. Its 
abolition may be the dream of an enthusiast, the 
wish of a demon, or the aim of a tyrant: but it 



18 



THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 



cannot be accomplished without subverting the laws 
of human nature. Fire may cease to burn, water to 
flow, and the air to circulate; but man will never 
cease to be religious. When he is no longer an in- 
tellectual, social, moral, religious being, he will not 
be man. 








CHAPTEE II. 



PROVIgiOJM fOR JSUPPLYINQ JVlAN'p 
REJJQIOUJB WANTS. 



.r^/AYING shown that man is endowed with a 
religious instinct, we shall now proceed to 
JZSJi^ prove that the Creator has made arrange- 
ments for the indulgence of this natural craving. 
The universe, so far as it comes under our observa- 
tion, is a vast repository of means wisely adapted to 
accomplish beneficial ends. Nothing exists for itself 
alone. Everything is part of a comprehensive whole, 
and subservient to a far-reaching and all-controlling 
purpose. All the properties of inorganic matter, all 
the instincts of animals, and all the faculties of in- 
telligent creatures, are subsidiary to the benevolent 
designs of the Creator. Order, fitness, and harmony 
characterize all his works. He has created no being 
without an appropriate sphere for its occupation; 
given no sense without proper objects for its exer- 
cise ; no appetite without suitable food for its grati- 
fication; no instinct without scope for its develop- 
ment; no aspiration without a reward to incite it; 



20 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

and no faculty without a field for its employment. 
We might draw illustrations of this truth from all 
that our eyes behold, of things terrestrial and celes- 
tial; but we shall limit our exemplifications 4o such 
as may be derived from man. 

Contemplate him as a physical being. He is 
curiously and wonderfully formed. All his members, 
senses, appetites, passions, instincts, are means fitted 
to secure certain ends essential to his happiness and 
preservation ; and all are supplied with suitable ob- 
jects for their exercise or gratification. The hands 
and feet find suitable and profitable employment in 
the materialism by which they are encompassed, and 
upon which they can act. God, who endowed man 
with senses, has bountifully provided for their exer- 
cise. The eye, the organ of vision, is a marvellous 
piece of mechanism ; but it would be worthless with- 
out light. He who made light made the eye, and 
adapted them to each other with infinite skill. The 
ear, mysteriously formed for hearing, and capable of 
distinguishing, not only the roaring of thunder and 
of artillery, but the faintest whisper and the gentlest 
rustling of the breeze, would be useless without sound. 
He that "planted the ear," has so constituted the 
atmosphere that it transmits to this organ, with sur- 
prising distinctness, the concussions of the air. The 
senses of smelling, of tasting, and of feeling, are all 
abundantly furnished with objects suited to their 
exercise and indulgence. To meet their demands, 
matter was created with odorous, savory, and tangi- 
ble qualities ; and without them these senses would 
have proved an absolute failure. 



MAN'S RELIGIOUS WANTS. 21 

We might find illustrations and proofs pertinent 
to our subject in every passion, appetite, and instinct 
of humanity; but the intelligent reader can readily 
discover them himself. "We shall confine our remarks 
under this head to one more point: Hunger is un- 
doubtedly an instinct of man, upon the gratification 
of which the continuance of life depends. To .meet 
the cravings of this appetite the Creator has made 
provident arrangements. When the unconscious in- 
fant desires nourishment, the mother, prompted by 
natural affection, furnishes it from her own breast. 
Without this wise and beneficent provision, the rear- 
ing of children would be difficult or impossible. 
When the child can no longer be nourished from its 
mother's bosom, it is furnished with teeth for the 
mastication of its food ; and earth and sea and air, 
sunshine and showers, are made to minister to its 
wants. But for hunger, man would not know his 
necessity ; and but for the arrangements which God 
has made to furnish him food, it would prove a curse 
and a torture. He who gave man the desire of food, 
duly provided for its gratification, and suspended on 
it, to a large extent, the activities, interests, and hap- 
piness of society. 

If we consider man as an intellectual being, we 
discover abundant proof that God has provided 
means for the development and exercise of his facul- 
ties and the indulgence of his tastes. His mind is 
constituted with various powers or capacities. Cu- 
riosity is the thirst for knowledge; memory is its 
storehouse ; judgment puts it to use, and imagination 
combines and modifies the gathered treasures for 



22 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

purposes of pleasure or instruction. All these facul- 
ties would be dormant, if there were not objects 
suited to interest, train, and employ them. God, 
who endowed man with intellect, has placed him in 
a world in which all his faculties find congenial exer- 
cise. Curiosity has its gratification in the exhaust- 
less stores of knowledge which are opened to it in 
the works of nature and of art, in the history of 
mankind, in the institutions of society, and in the 
speculations of men of genius. To quicken this ap- 
petite and to facilitate its indulgence, knowledge has 
been simplified, reduced to order, and rendered ac- 
cessible in books and libraries. Memory finds end- 
less occupation in gathering, selecting, classifying, 
and retaining for ready use the invaluable treasures 
of information. Judgment, with all the lights of 
memory for its guidance, is continually exercising 
its regal function in deciding questions of interest, 
duty, and expediency. Imagination, enriched by the 
hoarded gems of memory, is busy in imparting form 
and color, beauty and grandeur to the conceptions 
of the mind. 

In addition to the faculties for the pursuit and 
acquisition of knowledge, man has an aesthetic capa- 
city : he discerns and admires the beautiful and the 
grand in nature, art, and morals. To cultivate and 
delight this taste, all nature is robed in beauty, and 
abounds in forms of magnificence and grandeur. 
The flowers of the field, the glories of the forest, the 
sublimity of the rugged mountain, the roaring of the 
mighty cataract, the surging of the tempestuous 
ocean, the twinkling of the beautiful stars, and the 



MAN'S RELIGIOUS WANTS. 23 

splendors of the noonday sun, are all suited, and 
doubtless designed to educate and satisfy man's 
aesthetic nature. 

How evident in all these arrangements is the de- 
sign of the Creator to supply man's inner wants — to 
furnish food for his mental cravings, opportunities 
for the exercise and growth of his mental faculties, 
and objects for the improvement and pleasure of his 
mental tastes. 

If we ascend higher on the scale of existence, 
and examine man as a social creature, we shall gather 
fresh proofs of the truth under consideration. We 
have already seen that society is essential to man's 
happiness. He might have been created an isolated 
being, and left to pine and perish in his loneliness. 
God saw that it was not good for man to be alone in 
Paradise, and created woman to be his companion, 
helper, and solace. " God setteth the solitary in 
families." The domestic relation has its foundation 
in the instinctive wants of man. No law, or policy, 
or reward, can annul the connection. Yice, a false 
philosophy, and the desire of change have sometimes 
rebelled against the arrangement ; but they have not 
been able to overturn, or even to shake it. In the 
family circle, man's fondness for companionship is 
met, refined, and expanded. The union of families 
constitutes 1 society. In the widening circles of kin- 
dred, neighbors, friends, congenial companions, citi- 
zens, and fellow-beings, the instinctive desire of asso- 
ciation finds its full scope and its pleasing gratifi- 
cation. Go where he may, man seeks and secures 
society, sympathy, and aid. 



24 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

God, then, in creating man with social instincts, 
provided for their free and certain indulgence. The 
economy of nature necessitates the intercourse, co- 
operation, mutual sympathy, and fraternal regards of 
mankind. 

We have proved that man is endowed with moral 
and religious instincts. If God has not made pro- 
vision for their development and exercise, and the 
attainment of their proper ends, then there is a 
strange and inexplicable incongruity in his works. 
We have seen that the universe is an assemblage of 
means adapted to secure important and beneficent 
ends. Especially does it appear that the Creator 
has made ample arrangements to supply the instinct- 
ive wants of man as a physical, intellectual, and 
social being ; and that all the members of his body, 
all his senses, appetites, and passions, all his mental 
faculties and tastes, and all his social affections, have 
scope for then appropriate exercise and indulgence. 
Analogy leads us to believe, with unfaltering confi- 
dence, that a provision not less suitable has been 
made to supply his religious wants. 

We have not yet presented the analogical argu- 
ment in its full force. Man's religious element is 
the noblest portion of his nature. As the chaff is to 
the wheat, so is the body to the soul; but the soul 
derives its chief value from its moral, religious, and 
immortal nature. It is his capacity to know, to love, 
to obey, to honor, and to enjoy God, that gives man 
a place in the scale of existence only " a little lower 
than the angels," and makes him worthy of compan- 
ionship with God himself. Is it possible that the 



•MAN'S RELIGIOUS WANTS. 25 

Creator should be careful to provide for the wants 
of man's inferior, and fail to supply those of his 
superior nature? Will he who is so thoughtful to 
polish and preserve the casket, be unconcerned about 
the precious jewel? God surely has not endowed 
man with aspirations after immortality to mock him. 
He has not inspired man with religious instincts for 
no purpose but to perplex, mislead, and disappoint 
him. 

If this reasoning is correct, we are led irresistibly 
to the conclusion that there is a religion suited to 
man's nature and necessities. There is truth — a sys- 
tem of truth — pertaining to his relations and obliga- 
tions to the Creator, and to his spiritual wants and 
future destiny. There may be much ignorance, su- 
perstition and error in the world; but these cannot 
change the nature of truth. It may be difficult to 
learn the truth and to avoid delusion ; but truth is 
indestructible. If man knew the truth, it would set 
him free — free from false worship, imaginary fears, 
and delusive hopes. Amid all the skepticism and all 
the changing and conflicting opinions of the world, 
we may rest assured that there is a homage due to 
God, and a hope of immortality inspired by his 
Spirit, suited to man's intelligent and moral nature, 
to the knowledge of which it should be his supreme 
desire, and his honest, earnest and unceasing effort 
to attain. 



6tal of Ueavsu 




CHAPTER III. 

THE REUQION J3UITED TO JMAJN. 

F it be true as we have endeavored to prove, 
that man is endowed with a religious instinct, 
and that God has made provision for the in- 
dulgence of this appetence; then it becomes us 
promptly, candidly, and earnestly to inquire what 
this food is; or, in other words, what religion is 
adapted to man's nature and necessity. 

Many systems of religion, differing widely in 
their origin, principles, morals, forms of worship, 
tendencies and promised rewards, are offered for our 
acceptance. These may all be false : they cannot 
all be true. Truth, of necessity, is consistent with 
itself. It is, in one aspect, a unit. Every truth is 
an integral portion of universal truth. As the vari- 
ous systems of religion present conflicting views and 
claims, it is demonstrable that they contain more or 
less of error. As these diversities relate in many 
cases, not to what is incidental and unimportant, 
but to what is essential and vital, it is clear that 
they can never be reconciled. There may be some 
truth in the worst, and some error in the best system 
of religion, as known and practised among men ; but 
obviously that which contains the largest measure of 



THE RELIGION SUITED TO MAN. 27 

truth is entitled to our chief attention and regard. 
If Christianity is true, then of necessity Paganism, 
in all its forms, and Mohammedism, as held by all 
its sects, are false ; Judaism and Deism, though true 
in part, are defective and inefficient as religious sys- 
tems ; and Rationalism, and every school of philos- 
oplry, fall far short of supplying man's spiritual 
necessities. On the other hand, if any of these sys- 
tems of religion or philosophy is true, and adequate 
to man's religious wants, then Christianity is in the 
main false, and at best useless. 

Whether Paganism is true and adapted to the 
moral necessities of man, can never be a serious 
question among those who have been reared under 
the light of an open Bible. Idolatry had its source 
in the deep-felt want of humanity for religion. Man 
must be religious. His instincts impel him to render 
homage to a superior being. In his ignorance, weak- 
ness, and corruption, he searches earth and heaven 
to find a god. He pays his adoration to visible ob- 
jects — sun, moon, or stars — or to such creatures as 
best represent his crude notions of divinity ; or find- 
ing nothing in nature to satisfy his tastes, he thinks 
that " the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or 
stone, graven by art and man's device. " His god is 
formed according to his inclination and habits. It 
is an embodiment of beauty or deformity, of the 
lovely or the odious, in proportion as the devotee is 
refined or debased, humane or cruel. Paul gives the 
only rational account of the origin of idolatry : " When 
men knew God, they glorified him not as God, nei- 
ther were thankful ; but became vain in their imagi- 



28 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

nations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 
and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God 
into an image made like to corruptible man, and to 
birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.' 
Bom. i. 21-23. We might learn from history, if 
Paul had not taught us by revelation, that moral 
corruption led to ignorance, ignorance to idolatry, 
and idolatry to deeper debasement. 

Paganism, in its various forms, furnishes convin- 
cing evidence of man's religious instinct, but utterly 
fails to satisfy it. It has no authority. It was con- 
ceived in ignorance, and is nourished by superstition. 
It has no light for the ignorant, no pardon for the 
guilty, no consolation for the afflicted, no help for 
the living, and no hope for the dying. The wisest 
of the ancient heathen philosophers acknowledged 
their ignorance and longed for an inspired teacher. 
Men, who have been favored with the light of the 
gospel, may be irreligious, but they cannot be idola- 
ters. They may refuse to worship God, but they 
cannot be so blind and debased as to say "to a 
stock, Thou art my father; or to a stone, Thou, hast 
brought me forth." An open Bible and idolatry 
cannot coexist. Where the light of revelation has 
been diffused, men are elevated above the degrad- 
ing superstitions and senseless rites of idolatry. It 
may be safely assumed, that no intelligent man, 
not brutalized by vice, can accept it as a religion 
suited to his spiritual wants. 

Mohammedism has no just claim to be accepted 
as a revelation from God. Mohammed derived his 



THE RELIGION SUITED TO MAN. 29 

doctrine and precepts in part from the Scriptures ; 
and so far they are true and good. All that is dis- 
tinctive in the system, he professed, indeed, to have 
received from God ; but of his inspiration he fur- 
nished no proof. The mission of Moses and the 
prophets, of Christ and the apostles, was confirmed 
by miracles, and signs and wonders ; and by prophe- 
cies, whose fulfilment has been attested by impartial 
history, or which are now being fulfilled in the face 
of the world. Mohammed wrought no miracle. His 
mission was heralded by no prophet. His ministry 
was accompanied by no sign of the divine sanction. 
He uttered no prophecy, whose accomplishment in 
after times could establish his claim to inspiration. 
He rested his demands for the confidence and rever- 
ence of the world on the wisdom of his doctrine and 
the purity of his precepts. On this basis, let them 
rest. " The Koran, indeed, viewed merely as a com- 
position, gives no great proof of understanding or 
genius; and being produced, not as a complete 
book, but in separate portions at different times, 
forms a motley collection of incoherent and contra- 
dictory fragments. While he uttered these occa- 
sional revelations, according as circumstances re- 
quired, they were treasured in the memory of his 
hearers, or written by their pens on the leaves of the 
palm-tree, the skins of animals, or even on the shoul- 
der bones of sheep. A collection of these fragments 
intrusted to one of his wives, was methodized by 
Abu-Beker into a volume ; but so many errors had 
crept into the text, that Othman, the third Caliph, 
when attempting to reconcile the different manu- 



30 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

scripts, found it an easier task to burn the whole, 
and to publish a new Koran for the use of the faith- 
ful. It may thus be fairly questioned, how far the 
boasted beauty of the style, which is held equivalent 
to a miracle in a prophet ignorant of letters, be in 
reality the pure production of Mohammed."* 

The Koran, as seen in an English dress, stands 
but little chance to establish its claim to inspiration 
by the celestial beauty of its style. Of all volumes, 
except the book of Mormon, it is the most tedious, 
incoherent, and unreadable. The man who has read 
it through is entitled to a medal for his patience and 
perseverance. It is not only without external or in- 
ternal marks of divine authority, but does not even 
proffer the succors and consolations needed by man 
in the conflicts and sorrows of life. It reveals no 
Saviour. It makes no provision for man's deliver- 
ance from conscious corruption and guilt. It does 
not supply the food demanded by his spiritual and 
disordered nature. 

nationalism is that system of religion in which 
the teaching of revelation is subjected to the author- 
ity of Reason. It is conceded that in regard to rev- 
elation, Reason has an important office to perforin. 
Man is a rational being, and a religion, adapted to 
his nature must be reasonable. Revelation is ad- 
dressed to him as an intelligent, moral agent. It 
consists of statements, arguments, and appeals, which 
he can understand and weigh. It is the province of 
Reason to decide whether God has made a revela- 
tion to the world. From this responsible duty, she 

* Edinburgh Ency. Art. Mahomet. 



THE IlELIGION SUITED TO MAN. 31 

cannot be discharged ; and its performance calls for 
the most patient research, and for the utmost circum- 
spection and candor. Momentous consequences 
hang on the decision. From the judgment of Rea- 
son on this point, man can make no appeal, except 
to the same tribunal. 

This question once settled, Reason has yet 
another difficult service to execute. She must judge 
of the contents of revelation. It is her place to lis- 
ten re ver entry to the voice of God, and to interpret 
it to conscience, and, as she has opportunity, to the 
world. In this service, she is not only permitted, 
but required, under the most solemn sanctions, to 
avail herself of all the aids within her reach, to give 
a clear and faithful rendering of God's word. She 
must neither add to, nor subtract from, the truth as 
he has revealed it. 

When Reason has pronounced her judgment on 
the genuineness of divine revelation, and has done her 
utmost for its elucidation, her task is ended. She is 
bound to accept, without question and without cavil, 
the truth revealed. She is utterly incompetent to 
decide on the wisdom, the purity, or the usefulness 
of revelation. When God speaks, men should stand 
in awe. His communications may seem obscure, 
but they cannot be unwise ; they may seem strange, 
but they cannot be impure ; they may seem improb- 
able, but they cannot be incredible. "Let God be 
time, but every man [who contradicts himj a liar." 

Rationalism assigns to Reason the impious pre- 
rogative of sitting in judgment on the merits of rev- 
elation —of discriminating between its supposed 



32 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

truths and errors, and of separating the precious 
from the vile in its contents. The system enthrones 
Reason and degrades revelation. It does not per- 
mit God to speak to his creatures, except in such 
terms and with such limitations as Reason may pre- 
scribe. It proceeds on the supposition that man is 
competent to be his own religious guide; and that 
the communications of his Creator and Ruler are to 
be treated like those of a philosopher. It dispenses, 
in effect, with faith, which holds so important a 
place in the Scriptures. It divests Christianity of 
all that is supernatural in its origin and in its 
history,- and of all that is mysterious in its com- 
munications. By means of criticism, free transla- 
tions, amended texts and philosophical distinctions, 
it brhigs the whole system within the compass of 
naturalism. Christ was a man — a mere man — but a 
good man ; in religious knowledge, quite in advance 
of his age ; inspired on moral subjects, as were 
Shakespeare in poetry, Bacon in philosophy, and 
Raphael in painting. The miracles of Jesus were 
feats, effected by a superior knowledge of natural 
laws, resembling mesmerism or telegraphy. The 
wonders, accompanying the birth and death of 
Jesus, were natural phenomena, magnified or dis- 
torted by superstitious credulity into extraordinary 
divine interpositions. In short, Rationalism gives 
unbounded license to the imagination and to criti- 
cism in the interpretation of the Scriptures. Noth- 
ing exceeds its credulity, except that God should 
reveal some truth above human comprehension, and 
confirm it by some sign above human explanation. 



THE RELIGION SUITED TO MAN. 33 

Rationalism does not reach man's spiritual wants. 
Who ever ilecl to it in the hour of danger for suc- 
cor? Who ever sought conifort from it in the time of 
distress? or seeking, found it? It cannot in death 
impart to its votary support, light, hope, and triumph. 
Men, not "vain in their own imaginations," must 
reject it as a mere trifling with things sacred and 
divine. Practically, it is an end to earnest piety. It 
maintains its rites and ceremonies and public wor- 
ship, as things promotive of the unity and refinement 
of society ; but it rejects the distinctive truths of 
Christianity, quenches the spirit of devotion, and 
subverts the foundation of morality. Where it pre- 
vails, the morning of the Lord's day is devoted to 
the ingenious perversion of the Scriptures, and the 
heartless performance of religious rites; and the 
afternoon, by priests and people, to attendance in 
beer-gardens, and to the frivolities, dissipations, and 
vices which naturally abound in these scenes of Sab- 
bath desecration. 

Deism, in its doctrines, does not differ essentially 
from Mohammedism or Rationalism. It admits and 
glories in maintaining, the existence of one God. It 
is indebted to revelation for its knowledge of his 
perfections and of his providential government of 
the world ; but ungratefully denies its obligation. 
Wlience comes it that Deists of the present day are 
so much better iuformed concerning the divine attri- 
butes than were the polytheistic philosophers of the 
old world ? But for the light of revelation, Deists 
would be groping in the ignorance of God which 
enveloped the naturalists of the early age. In prac- 

2* 



34 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

tiee, Deism does not differ from Atheism. It is not 
a religion, nor a substitute for it ; but a mere nega- 
tion. It acknowledges God, but does not receive 
his word nor worship him. It compliments him 
with fine words, but it pays him no homage. It 
erects neither temples nor altars. It has no songs 
and offers no players. It has no Sabbath, no rites, 
no sacrifices ; and priests, or religious teachers, it 
holds in abhorrence. It has no law but inclination, 
and no end but self-indulgence or self-exaltation. 
To it, death is an eternal sleep, immortality is a 
dream, and heaven is a delusion. In all its phases, 
it is made up of negations. It does nothing, aims at 
nothing, promises nothing, and professes nothing; 
except to doubt, deny, quibble, and scoff. It rejects 
the light of revelation, but offers no substitute 
for it. 

Men accept Deism, not as religion, but instead of 
it. It would be illiberal and unjust to affirm that 
all Deists are bad men. Many of them are amiable, 
honest, highminded, and honorable, lovely in their 
domestic relations, valuable citizens, cultivated and 
refined ; but they are not religious. With them 
Deism is a theory ; neither inspiring their devotions, 
controlling their conduct, nor moulding their charac- 
ters. In truth, they do not believe it. They accept 
it as probable. They prefer it to Christianity. It 
imposes fewer and feebler restraints on their inclina- 
tions than the gospel; and they hope that it may 
prove to be true. It does not, however, satisfy their 
religious longings. Then consciences are ill at ease. 
Affliction makes them feel their need of consolation 



THE RELIGION SUITED TO MAN. 35 

that Deism cannot minister. The near prospect of 
death usually weakens their faith and beclouds their 
hope. In ninety-nine cases in every hundred, in 
which they seriously and candidly turn their atten- 
tion to the subject of religion, their deistical notions 
are dissipated, as mist before the rising sun, and 
they bitterly regret their lack of the hope revealed in 
the gospel. 

We need not further examine the various systems 
of religion that seek to secure the confidence and 
supply the spiritual necessities of man. Christianity 
is the only hope of the world. If this is not true, 
there is no light, no salvation and no help for man. 
All other schemes of religion or of irreligion are 
powerless and vain. They leave him in impenetra- 
ble gloom, the slave of sin, the dupe of error, with- 
out a guide in life, and without consolation in death. 
If the gospel does not furnish food for man's reli- 
gious appetite, then he is an anomaly in creation; 
endowed with powers which can never be exercised, 
with aspirations which can never be indulged, and 
tortured with desires which can never be gratified. 
The interests of humanity make it desirable that the 
gospel should be true. What the wise and the good 
wish to be true is likely to be so. 

We come then to the Bible as our last resort. If 
it has not the proofs which compel our faith, it has, 
at least, the marks which entitle it to our earnest, 
thorough, and impartial attention. It is a wonderful 
book. In the literature of the world there is noth- 
ing like it. It is the oldest, the most widely circula- 
ted, the most generally read, the most reverenced, 



36 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

the most influential, and the most important of all 
volumes. 

The Bible contains sixty-six books, composed by 
different authors, hi different countries, in different 
languages, and in different ages, from the middle of 
the fifteenth century before, to the close of the first 
century after the birth of Christ. Those written 
before the coining of Christ, numbering thirty-nine 
volumes, are called the Old Testament : those com- 
posed after that period are styled the New Testa- 
ment. The books of the first class, containing 
numerous types, symbols and prophecies, belong 
to the initiatory dispensation. The second class 
contains the full development of Christianity, or the 
gospel. In it, the ceremonies, types, symbols and 
prophecies of the Old Testament have their accom- 
plishment. To the New Testament, then, as illus- 
trated by the Old, we must look for that exhibition of 
religion whose claim to the confidence and accep- 
tance of men we are now to consider. 

Christianity presupposes certain great fundamen- 
tal truths. Among these, the first is the existence of 
God. If there is no God, there can be no religion ; 
for religion is homage rendered to God. Atheism is 
incompatible with moral obligation; and, of neces- 
sity^, without worship. To vindicate the existence 
and to reveal the perfections of God, was the chief 
end of the Old Testament. By successive manifes- 
tations of his power and glory, in the deliverance 
and protection of his people, and in the confusion 
and overthrow of his enemies, he established the 
belief in his existence ; and by his laws, moral and 



THE RELIGION SUITED TO MAN. 37 

ceremonial, and the dispensations of his providence, 
by which the righteous were rewarded and the 
wicked were punished, he revealed the holiness of 
his character. It is doubtful whether man, without 
divine revelation, could ever attain to the conception 
of the one living God ; but, once received into the 
mind, the evidences of its truths are obvious and 
overwhelming. We need not state the proofs that 
God exists. Everything around us and within us 
proclaims his being in language which no argument 
can elucidate or strengthen. " The heavens declare 
the glory of God ; and the firmament showeth his 
handy work." So convincing is this manifestation 
of the divine glory that the Psalmist said: "the 
fool" — and it may be added, only the fool — "hath 
said in his heart, There is no God." The being of 
God, fundamental to the system and too evident to 
need proof, Christianity assumes. 

Man's moral responsibility is taken for granted in 
the gospel. That he is endowed with faculties which 
render him an accountable being will scarcely be 
denied. All private contracts, and ail governments, 
domestic and civil, are based on this supposition. 
Man is held to an equitable responsibility by his fel- 
lows. That God is entitled to men's homage is the 
most certain of all moral propositions. If there is 
a God, they should reverence and obey him. If any- 
thing is right, this is right. If this is not right, noth- 
ing is right, and the word " right," and every term of 
similar import, should be expunged from all human 
language. But it is right that the creature should 
serve the Creator. Conscience proclaims it, reason 



38 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

sanctions it, and the voice of mankind confirms it. 
Christianity did not reveal and does not argue, but 
simply accepts this truth. All its communications 
presuppose that man is an intelligent, moral, respon- 
sible agent. Apart from this supposition, it has 
neither grace, consistency, nor truth. 

Another important principle assumed by Christi- 
anity is, that man is a fallen, corrupt, and guilty being. 
This is a vital point. The gospel purports to be a 
revelation of mercy and of salvation ; but if men are 
not sinners, they do not need salvation — if they are 
not guilty, they cannot receive mercy. " The Son of 
man is come to seek and to save that which was 
lost." The existence of sin is one of the great mys- 
teries of the divine government. That God might 
have created a universe into which sin and sorrow 
coidd never enter, we cannot doubt. Judging a pri- 
ori, we should conclude that evil could not exist un- 
der the government of an infinitely wise, good, and 
powerful Being ; but our reasoning would be false. 
That sin is in the world is a stubborn fact. If the 
history of the world does not portray the deeds of a 
corrupt race, then a tree cannot be judged by its 
fruits. It is little else than a record of the selfish- 
ness, ambition, intrigues and injustice of rulers, and 
the oppressions, revolutions, wars, bloodshed, and 
ravages of nations. We need not, however, search 
the pages of history to find the proofs of man's de- 
pravity. They meet us wherever we open our eyes 
or our ears. Drunkenness reels in our streets and 
revels in the haunts of dissipation ; oaths and blas- 
phemies salute our ears, in public and in private ; 



TH.E RELIGION SUITED TO MAN. 39 

licentiousness stalks abroad, almost without disguise ; 
deceit, fraud, injustice and cruelty characterize the 
dealings of men with men ; pride, vanity, and hypoc- 
risy mingle even in the worship of God ; and the 
dread of punishment cannot wholly restrain men 
from arson, robbery, and murder. Every penal en- 
actment ; every lock, bolt, and bar ; every bond, 
mortgage, and legal oath : every prison, house of cor- 
rection, and penitentiary ; every implement of war 
and every means of punishment, is an unanswerable 
proof of man's moral corruption. Apart from the 
testimony of history and of observation, man carries 
in his own bosom the ineffaceable record of his guilt. 
He may be free from crime, and from outward vice ; 
he may be honest, amiable, generous, and noble ; he 
may be distinguished for a due regard to all the 
amenities and relative duties of hfe; but he has 
failed to fulfil his obligations to God. He knows, 
and, if he will be considerate and candid, cannot but 
be conscious, that he has not rendered to his Creator 
the homage due to him — that he has not been thank- 
ful to God according to the multitude of his tender 
mercies. He is convinced that he has cherished in 
his heart thoughts, purposes, and emotions, on which 
the pure and searching eye of God could not have 
rested with approbation. 

Christianity does not attempt to prove, but takes 
for granted, man's sinfulness and guilt. This doc- 
trine is implied in aU the facts and teachings of the 
system. Christ died for our sins ; it is the mission 
of the Holy Spirit to convince us of sin ; repentance, 
the first gospel duty, is turning from sin ; faith is the 



40 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

reception of Christ, as the deliverer from sin; and 
the great gospel privilege is the remission of sins. 
Indeed, from every page of the New Testament the 
doctrine of human depravity may be unquestionably 
learned. 

Once more, the gospel presupposes the inability 
of man to save himself. That having transgressed 
the law, he cannot be justified by it, is according to 
all our conceptions of moral government. How can 
a law pronounce the guilty innocent ? If men are 
sinners, they cannot be justified by works. If they 
can by works, repentance or sacrifices justify them- 
selves, or expiate their guilt, they do not need a 
Saviour; as says the apostle: "If righteousness" — 
that is, justification — " come by the law, then Christ 
is dead in vain." Gal. 2 : 21. Even if man could 
attain to justification by the deeds of the law, he is 
enslaved by sin, and cannot free himself from the 
degrading, miserable bondage. Education may do 
much to refine his manners, restrain his appetite, 
regulate his j)assions, improve his morals, elevate his 
character ; in fine, to polish his exterior ; but it can- 
not extinguish the thirst of sin, or kindle the sacred 
fire of love to God and heavenly things. Man needs 
regeneration — a new life — and this neither men nor 
angels can impart. * 

The gospel clearly proceeds on the view of man's 
helplessness. " God sent not his Son into the world 
to condemn the world " — for that there was no 
necessity, as the world was already condemned — 
"but that the world" — lost and helpless — "through 
him might be saved." John 3: 17. "TVhat the 



THE RELIGION SUITED TO MAN. 41 

law could not do " — that is, save us — " in that it was 
weak through the flesh " — or the corruption of hu- 
man nature — " God sending his own Son in the like- 
ness of sinful flesh, and for sin" — by a sacrifice for 
sin — " condemned sin in the flesh : that the righteous- 
ness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not 
after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Eom. 8 : 3-5. 

To sum up all in a few words: Men were es- 
tranged from God, guilty, miserable, utterly unable 
to extricate themselves from their perilous condition, 
and God, in his infinite love, interposed for their de- 
liverance. The gospel is the remedial system that 
he devised and revealed to the world to supply their 
spiiitual wants in their lost state. 







cr-oao^) 



^o 



CHAPTER TV. 




/N EPITOPE Of THE QOgPEJ,. 



EFOKE we examine directly the claims of 
r Christianity to be a divinely appointed rem- 
edy for the spiritual evils of mankind, it is 
proper to give an outline of it. It differs, in one 
respect, from other religions, demanding the con- 
fidence and submission of the world. It is based, 
not on speculations or logical deductions, but on 
facts — facts cognizable by human senses, recorded 
by eye and ear witnesses, and credible upon compe- 
tent testimony. The facts are briefly these : 

Nearly nineteen centuries ago, there appeared a 
man in Palestine, called Jesus. He was of humble 
parentage, and brought up in the obscure and de- 
spised village of Nazareth of Galilee. His miracu- 
lous birth, foretold by an angel, attended by celes- 
tial wonders, celebrated by a heavenly host, and 
honored by the visit of savants from a foreign coun- 
try, occurred in the little town of Bethlehem of Ju- 
dea, amid circumstances of the deepest poverty. 
The life so singularly commenced, was preserved, by 



AN EPITOME OF THE GOSPEL. 43 

divine interposition, from the infuriated rage of a 
cruel despot. Jesus, with an occasional manifesta- 
tion of more than human wisdom, grew up to the 
mature age of thirty years in the occupation of a 
carpenter, and among the rude inhabitants of his 
village home. 

The time had arrived when he should be revealed 
in his true character to Israel. The prophecies of a 
succession of Hebrew bards had inspired the Jews 
with strong hopes of the early appearance of a great 
national deliverer. John, a prophet of austere man- 
ners and coarse apparel, appeared in the wilderness 
of Judea, preaching the baptism of repentance for 
the remission of sins, and announcing the speedy 
advent of the promised Deliverer. John's ministry 
was popular, and multitudes, confessing their sins, 
were baptized of him in the river Jordan. Jesus 
himself, having travelled from Galilee for the pur- 
pose, was baptized, and the opening heavens, the 
descent of the Spirit like a dove upon him, and a 
celestial voice, proclaimed him as the beloved Son 
of God and the delight of the Father. After sharp 
temptations hi the wilderness, he entered on his 
great life-work. Without learning, without friends, 
without wealth, and without prestige, he proposed 
to establish a new religion, or rather to rescue from 
the perversion of centuries a religion divine in its 
origin and initial in its character, and to perfect it. 
Having neither armies, nor navies, nor arsenals, nor 
commissary stores, he undertook to found a king- 
dom, which should endure through all ages, extend 
over all nations, and confer on its subjects the richest 



44 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

blessings — a kingdom consisting "not in meats and 
drinks," or forms, ceremonies, and outward show, but 
"in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy 
Ghost." • 

The life of Jesus was of spotless purity ; free 
alike from ostentation and meanness, from austerity 
and self-indulgence, from rashness and pusillanimity. 
His most astute and bitter accusers could not con- 
vict him of sin. His enemies could bring against 
him no more serious charge than that he received 
sinners and ate with them. 

His teaching was incomparable for simplicity, 
wisdom, originality, beauty, power, and adaptation 
to the circumstances of his hearers. In all his 
teaching, there was nothing irrelevant, illogical, or 
undignified; nothing, in short, that was not worthy 
for men to ponder and for God to utter. It is not 
surprising that when Jesus taught in the -temple, 
"-the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man 
letters, having never learned ?" John 7 : 15. Ages 
have passed since then, and the world has made 
progress in science and philosophy, but the greatest 
geniuses and sages still delight to study his words, 
and admire them the more, the more closely they 
examine them. 

Jesus confirmed his teaching by works which 
only God, or men endowed with divine power, could 
do. On these works, Jesus rested his claim to the 
confidence of the world. " The works," said he, 
" which the Father hath given me to finish, the same 
works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father 
hath sent me." John 5 : 36. Jesus wrought a mul- 



AN EPITOME OF THE GOSPEL. 45 

titude of miracles. Those recorded by the evan- 
gelists are only specimens of his works. In the 
following passage there is an intimation of the ex- 
tent of his beneficent labors : " Jesus went about 
all Galilee, teaching in then synagogues, and preach- 
ing the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all man- 
ner of sickness and all manner of disease among 
the people. And his fame went throughout all 
Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people 
that were taken with divers diseases and torments, 
and those which were possessed with devils, and 
those which were lunatic, and those that had the 
palsy; and he healed them." Matt. 4 : 23, 24 Such 
works as these extorted from the Pharisee, Nicocle- 
mus, the concession: "Rabbi, we know that thou 
art a teacher come from God : for no man can do 
these miracles that thou doest, except God be with 
him." John 3 : 2. 

The Jewish rulers rejected Jesus. He did not 
acknowledge their doctrines ; but confuted their 
errors, reproved their vices, exposed their hypoc- 
risies, and weakened their hold upon the common 
people. The rulers, stung by his reproofs and en- 
vious of his popularity, conspired to take his life. 
Through the treachery of Judas, one of his chosen 
friends, and according to divine pre-ordination, Je- 
sus was delivered into the hands of the chief priests 
and elders of the people. Their supreme court pro- 
nounced him worthy of death on the charge of blas- 
phemy ; but they lacked authority, under the Roman 
government, to execute the sentence. Changing the 
indictment for blasphemy, a crime not punishable 



4G THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

under Roman law, to one for sedition; an offence 
which Roman procurators were prompt to avenge, 
they hurried him to the tribunal of Pilate, and ex- 
torted from him a sentence for his crucifixion, even 
while he proclaimed the innocence of his victim, and 
washed his hands in token of his desire to be free 
from the blood that, in his weakness, he commanded 
to be shed. 

The sentence against Jesus was executed with 
indecent haste and cruelty. He was crucified with 
every mark of contumely, amid the taunts of the 
relentless rulers and of the excited populace. The 
scene was one of unparalleled solemnity and gran- 
deur. The suffering Jesus prayed for Lis murderers, 
committed his heart-stricken mother to the care of 
his beloved disciple, John, and opened the gates of 
paradise to a penitent fellow- sufferer. The trem- 
bling earth, the opening graves, the rending rocks, 
the parting temple-veil and the darkening heavens, 
proclaimed the innocence of Jesus, and drew from 
the lips of the astonished centurion, the chief execu- 
tioner, the exclamation : " Certainly this was a right- 
eous man !" 

The crucified Jesus was buried in the new tomb 
of Joseph of Arimathea. His resurrection from the 
dead had been foretold by ancient prophets, and he 
had suspended the success of his mission on that 
issue. His enemies, aware of the prediction, set a 
guard over his tomb. But it was not possible that 
he should be held by the bonds of death. On the 
third day he was raised from the dead, by the power 
of God, and through the space of forty days he 



AN EPITOME OF THE GOSPEL. 47 

showed himself, "by many infallible proofs," not to 
all the people, but to chosen witnesses. "He was 
seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; after that, he 
was seen of above five hundred brethren at once." 
In the interval between his resurrection and his 
ascension, he conversed with his apostles "of the 
things pertaining to the kingdom of God," and 
arranged for its establishment and extension in the 
earth. They were commanded to go into all the 
world, beginning at Jerusalem, and among all na- 
tions to preach repentance and remission of sins in 
the name of then- risen Lord ; and, that they might 
be qualified for their difficult task, to remain in 
Jerusalem until they should be endued with power 
from on high. 

Jesus, having finished the work which his Father 
had given him to do, led out his disciples from 
Jerusalem to Bethany, blessed them, was separated 
from them, received into a cloud, and entering into 
heaven, sat down on the right hand of God. Shi- 
ning angels proclaimed that he should return again 
in like manner as he had gone into heaven. 

The above, in brief, are the principal facts which 
distinguish the Christian system. In them, all the 
types, shadows and prophecies of the Old Testa- 
ment have their fulfilment ; around them all the doc- 
trines, precepts, invitations, promises, and threaten- 
ings Of the New Testament are crystallized. If these 
events are true, then Christianity is divine, and the 
hope of the Christian is "an anchor of the soul, 
both sure and steadfast;" but if they are false, the 
gospel is a delusion, and the Christian's hope is 



48 



THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 



vain. If the gospel is of God, it is adapted to man's 
spiritual necessities ; and in this adaptation we may 
reasonably expect to find abundant evidence of its 
divinity — evidence suited to the comprehension and 
the circumstances of all ay ho are willing candidly to 
receive it. 




^ii'Afc> 




CHAPTER V. 



THE gPIRIT IN WHICH THE QOgPEL 
gHOUED BE EXAMINED. 



HEN God created man, he prepared food 




^ for the sustenance of his body. He learns 
that it is suited to his nourishment, not by 
any chemical analysis or investigation of 
physiological laws, but by experience. Hunger im- 
pels him to eat it, and he is conscious, not only that 
it satiates his appetite, but that he derives from it 
pleasure, strength, and activity. God, who adapted 
food to the nutrition of the body, has, with equal 
wisdom and goodness, suited the gospel to the wants 
of the soul. As food cannot nourish the body, 
except it be eaten and digested, so the gospel can- 
not profit the soul, unless it be received and obeyed. 
It is analogical to conclude that God has made the 
reception of the gospel to depend, not on learned 
testimonies, or abstruse reasonings, but upon its 
adaptation to supply man's spiritual wants and grat- 
ify his religious appetites. 

If we open the Scriptures, we find that the gos- 
pel has power to prove its divinity to a docile and 

Si-:i) of Heaven. 3 



50 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

obedient mind. The Jews, who did not admit the 
Messiahship of Jesus, were yet astonished at his 
wisdom. They knew that he had been brought up 
in obscurity, had never learned letters, and had 
always lived in circumstances unfavorable to the 
acquisition of knowledge ; and they could not com- 
prehend whence he derived his wisdom. To them 
Jesus said, " My doctrine is not mine, but his that 
sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall 
know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or 
whether I speak of myself." John 7 : 17, The 
knowledge of divine truth is here declared to be 
conditional on the possession of an obedient will. 
If a man would be assured whether the gospel be 
divine or human, true or false, he must be, not a 
genius, not a logician, not a learned man, but teach- 
able — ready, as he discerns divine truth, to embrace 
it and regulate his conduct and affections by it. 
The gospel has self-evidencing power to him that is 
willing to obey it. 

The importance of this subject demands that we 
should give it special attention. The power of in- 
clination to blind the mind and bias the judgment 
is universally acknowledged. Who would be willing 
to have his cause tried by a partial judge? In 
judicial proceedings, great care is taken to secure 
jurors whose minds are free from bias. The opin- 
ion of mankind on this subject is pronounced in the 
word prejudice. It signifies a decision formed with- 
out due examination and care, and under the influ- 
ence of feeling. The very term conveys the sense 
of its folly and injustice. Admitting the gospel to 



THE INQUIRER'S SPIRIT. 51 

be true, we might reasonably conclude that some 
men, at least, from various causes, would be disin- 
clined to embrace it. "All that is in the world, the 
lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the 
pride of life, is not of the Father," and is, conse- 
quently, antagonistic to the gospel. It is not strange, 
then, that some persons judge of it under the blind- 
ing influence of inclination. It is no reproach to 
it that it is not believed by those who do not exam- 
ine the proofs of its divinity, or who examine them 
in a proud, self-sufficient and intractable spirit. All 
that can be reasonably demanded in a divine reve- 
lation is, that it shall be clear to him who is willing 
to receive it. In other words, we should not expect 
that the laws which govern human minds on other 
subjects, would be annulled in regard to the gospel. 

It is enough for all the purposes of a divine 
revelation that it should be known to him who is 
willing to obey God. On this point, the words of 
our great Teacher do not permit us to doubt. "If 
any man" — learned or rude, rich or poor, respected 
or despised — "will do" — is willing to obey — "his 
[God's] will, he shall know" — not merely may, but 
slmU know — -"of the doctrine [the truth taught], 
whether it be of God" — and therefore true, good, 
suited to the necessities of the soul — " or whether I 
speak of myself" — as a mere man, uninspired, with- 
out authority and without claims to confidence. 

As so much depends on a willingness to obey God, 
it is proper to consider it more carefully. This dis- 
position implies — 

I. A desire to know the truth. No man can be 



52 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

willing to obey God, who does not sincerely wish 
to learn his will — that which is true, right, and good. 
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" is the spon- 
taneous inquiry of every truly obedient soul. Indif- 
ference concerning duty is incompatible with piety. 
There is no neutrality in the kingdom of Christ. 
If we are not for him, we are against him. Luke 
12 : 30. The obedient heart, then, is open to receive 
the truth — it is more, it seeks to learn the truth, 
that it may walk hi it. 

II. A readiness to sacrifice every tiling that is in- 
consistent with duty. Obedience to God, in this 
world, is not always easy. It sometimes demands 
a heroism greater than that which storms a city or 
desolates a kingdom. "He that is slow to anger 
is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his 
spirit than he that taketh a city." A man who "is 
willing to do God's will " is prepared to lay every- 
thing — riches, pleasures, honors, j)ossessions, social 
relations and earthly hopes — on the altar of obedi- 
ence. A consecration less thorough would be un- 
worthy of the Master who demands it. It has 
distinguished the servants of God in all ages. It 
caused Daniel to be cast into the den of lions, John 
the Baptist to lose his head, Paul to fight with wild 
beasts at Ephesus, John to be banished to the bar- 
ren rock of Patmos, and many of the servants of 
God to have "trial of cruel mockings and scourg- 
ings, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment ;" to 
be stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, and slain with 
the sword. Christ, who laid down his life for his 
disciples, will not accept from them a devotion less 



SPIRIT OF THE INQUIRER. 53 

entire and uncompromising. " For whosoever," says 
Jesus, " will save his hfe shall lose it : and whoso- 
ever will lose his hfe for my sake shall find it." 
Matt. 16 : 25. The man who is willing to " deny 
himself, and take up his cross and follow" Christ, 
through evil and through good report, in sunshine 
and in storm, possesses a disposition favorable to 
the perception of divine truth. 

III. A promptness to icalk in the path of duty so 
far as it may be discovered. A man who refuses to 
obey God until all doubts are solved, all difficulties 
removed, and all mysteries explained, is a mere 
caviller. He has the spirit of fault-finding, not of 
obedience — the spirit that in the Pharisees would 
neither dance when then- fellows piped, nor mourn 
when they lamented. He resembles a man who 
refuses to walk by the light of a lamp, because it 
does not irradiate the whole of his path at once. 
By walking in the part that is lightened, the rest 
would gradually be made plain. " Thy word," said 
the Psalmist, "is a lamp unto my feet, and a light 
unto my path." This lamp does not make every 
portion of the path equally clear at the same time ; 
but the obedient man will walk as he has light. 
"What he sees to be wrong, he will avoid; what he 
knows to be right, he will do ; and what is of doubt- 
ful propriety, he will defer for more light. 

A willingness to do God's will includes, then, 
an inquiring, candid, docile, and submissive spirit — 
a heart that prefers truth to error, duty to pleasure, 
and the favor of God to popularity. That such a 
disposition is favorable to the reception of divine 



54 THE SEAL OE HEAVEN. 

truth can be easily perceived. He that possesses it 
"shall know of the doctrine," says Jesus, "whether 
it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." The 
promise is not that the obedient shall fully compre- 
hend the teaching of Christ. His doctrine is too 
deep, extensive, and complicated to be perfectly un- 
derstood by the neophyte, or even by the matured 
Christian. It contains depths which the profound- 
est genius cannot fathom, heights which the soaring 
whig of the most devout Christian cannot reach, and 
mysteries which no mortal wisdom can penetrate. 
Paul, eminent alike for his genius and his piety, 
contemplating the ocean of divine providence and 
grace, exclaimed : " Oh the depth of the riches both 
of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how un- 
searchable are his judgments and his ways past 
finding out!" To "grow in grace and in the knowl- 
edge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," is the 
duty of ail believers, 2 Pet. 3 : 18, but this growth 
implies the immaturity of then piety and knowledge. 
The promise is, that the docile shall know of the 
doctrine of Christ, that is, of the gospel, whether it 
be divine or human, true or false. In the very 
beginning of his course, the disciple imbued with a 
humble, trustful, and obedient spirit will discern in 
the gospel marks of its heavenly origin. Along with 
a deep conviction of his ignorance of its doctrines, 
precepts, and promises, he will possess an unshaken 
assurance that it is not an invention of cunning 
men, but that it is what it purports to be, a revela- 
tion from God. In him are verified the words of 
the Lord Jesus: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of 



SPIRIT OF THE INQUIRER. 55 

heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things 
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them 
unto babes." Matt, 11 : 25. 

No one ever examines the doctrine of Christ in 
a truly obedient spirit without reaching the assu- 
rance of its truth and excellence. Many persons, in 
a hah- hearted, careless and desultory way, have 
searched the Scriptures, and found no signs of their 
divinity; but all who read them with an earnest 
desire to know the truth, and an honest purpose to 
obey it, must discern the proofs of their inspiration, 
if Jesus was the true prophet. In the commence- 
ment of their investigations, they will be likely to 
have doubts and perplexities ; but these will be 
gradually dissipated by continued research. Ex- 
perience will demonstrate the truth, wisdom, and 
power of the gospel. "The path of the just is as 
the shining light, that shineth more and more unto 
the perfect day." Prov. 4 : 18. 




CHAPTER VI. 




I vials. 



ATTENTION TO THE QOgPE.L. 

I HE gospel deals, not with races, nations, 
communities, or families; but with individ- 
Every man lias a distinct, separate, 
independent personality, with peculiar powers, tastes, 
passions, privileges, and responsibilities. He is him- 
self, and nobody else, with none to represent him. 
To him the gospel, adapted to his personal aspira- 
tions, wants, and circumstances, is addressed. He 
must repent, believe, and obey for himself — must 
"work out his own salvation, with fear and trem- 
bling.'' "Every man shall bear his own burden." 
"Every one of us shall give account of himself to 
God." 

Eaith is essential to the efficacy of the gospel. 
This truth is prominently presented in the Scrip- 
tures. The apostolic commission reads : " Go ye 
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." 
Matt. 16 : 15, 16. "Whatever a man may do, or fail 



ATTENTION TO THE GOSPEL. 57 

to do, if lie does not believe the gospel, he cannot 
be saved. No rites, or prayers, or penances, or pil- 
grimages, or alms, or priestly absolution, can secure 
his salvation without faith. No knowledge, no gifts, 
no zeal, no works, no sacrifices, and no sufferings 
can be a substitute for it. Saving faith is not a 
mere speculation or profession, but a cordial accept- 
ance of the gospel as the divinely appointed means 
of salvation. 

That faith is essential to the efficacy of the gos- 
pel is the dictate of reason and philosophy as well 
as of revelation. It is addressed to the understand- 
ings and consciences of men, and it can impress and 
influence them only as it is understood and believed. 
It saves men, not by magical, but by moral influ- 
ence ; and that it may exert this influence, it must be 
comprehended, embraced, and laid to heart. How 
can an unread Bible purify the affections or control 
the life? How can unknown truth free the soul 
from superstition, or from the love and dominion of 
sin ? From the very nature of the case we readily 
conclude that the gospel is " the power of God unto 
salvation," only to those who believe it. 

Faith in the gospel is the fruit of attention-. It 
cannot be produced by . education, however thor- 
ough, pious, and scriptural it may be. It does not 
spring from hearing sermons or reading works on 
the evidences of Christianity, though they may be 
eloquent, able, and convincing. "Faith cometh by 
hearing, and hearing by the word of God," Eom. 
10 : 17 ; yet all hearing does not lead to faith ; but 
only attentive, earnest, solemn, candid hearing. Je- 

3* 



58 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

sus, therefore, in the application of the parable of 
the sower, gave this solemn caution: "Take heed, 
therefore, how ye hear." To the same effect the 
author of the epistle to the Hebrews says : " We 
ought to give the more earnest heed to the things 
which we have heard" — things pertaining to the 
"great salvation" — "lest at any time we should let 
them slip." Many hear, but do not give "earnest 
heed" to the gospel. The preacher is "unto them 
as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant 
voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they 
hear his words, but they do them not." 

It is obvious that a slight and careless hearing 
of the gospel will not produce faith. The gospel 
indeed is plain — adapted to the human understand- 
ing; the apostles "by manifestation of the truth" 
commended themselves "to every man's conscience 
in the sight of God." 2 Cor. 4 : 2. Divine revela- 
tion, however, is not so simple that it may be under- 
stood without attention or effort. The proofs of its 
divinity are clear and decisive, but they cannot con- 
vince those who do not examine them. The gospel 
is "hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of 
this world hath blinded the minds of them which 
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of 
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto 
them." 2 Cor. 4 : 4. 

In order that men may be saved, they must heed 
as well as hear the gospel. It has been shown that 
naturally they are averse to its reception. God has 
appointed the ministry to call the attention of men 
to it, and overcome their aversion to believing it. 



ATTENTION TO THE GOSPEL. 59 

These ministers are of like nature, passions, and 
circumstances with other men. The messengers of 
the gospel know by experience its truth, power, and 
excellence; deeply sympathize with the misery of 
their fellow-beings in a state of shi, bondage, and 
guilt ; and with tenderness, affection, and fidelity, 
proclaim the word of salvation, bear testimony to 
its efficacy, and urge the lost to embrace it. 

Multitudes, however, hear the gospel preached, 
sometimes with the demonstration of logic, and some- 
times with melting strains of eloquence, without con- 
cern, or with only transient emotions. Their con- 
victions are effaced and their good resolutions are 
suppressed by the hurry of business, the pressure of 
care, and the fascinations of pleasure. But nothing 
can be done to secure their salvation until their 
earnest attention is turned to the gospel. All the 
solicitudes, labors, and prayers of friends on their 
behalf; all the interest that angels feel in their re- 
demption ; the atonement and intercession of Christ ; 
the riches of divine grace, and the quickening, cleans- 
ing power of the Holy Spirit, will not avail them, 
so long as they continue to neglect the " great salva- 
tion." 

God has appointed various means subservient to 
the ministry of the word for directing men's atten- 
tion to the gospel. Among these may be mentioned 
a religious education ; affectionate, personal, private, 
faithful religious conversation ; pious, well-written, 
and interesting tracts and books; the dispensations 
of Providence, pleasing and afflictive ; Christian ex- 
ample illustrating both the power and the beauty 



GO TPIE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

of the gospel; and the church, with her ordinances 
and her evangelical agencies. By all these instru- 
mentalities are sinners induced to pay attention to 
the gospel. Their influence, however, is variously 
combined. Few persons can trace the commence- 
ment of their religious impressions. They began, 
perhaps, in childhood, from the instructions and 
prayers of a godly mother. They were deepened, 
it may be, by sermons, pious conversations, religious 
reading, Christian ordinances, and a thousand influ- 
ences which cannot be described or remembered. 
Their religious convictions and emotion have been 
variable, sometimes deepened and sometimes almost 
effaced by the everchanging scenes and events of 
life. 

Another agency for securing attention to the 
gospel must not be overlooked — that is, divine in- 
fluence. God calls men to repent and believe the 
gospel. He deals with them, not as stocks or stones 
or machines ; but as sentient, voluntary, moral agents. 
He employs means suited to their nature, capaci- 
ties, and circumstances, to arrest their attention, en- 
lighten their minds, quicken their consciences, im- 
press their hearts and overcome their aversion to 
the gospel. He exerts such influence as to him 
seems wise and proper, to give success to these 
means. There is a striking illustration of this truth 
in the inspired account of the first recorded conver- 
sion iii Europe. Lydia, the purple-merchant of 
Philippi, heard the gospel; "whose heart the Lord 
opened, that she attended unto the things which 
were spoken of Paul." Acts 16 : 14. She heard 



ATTENTION TO THE GOSPEL. Gl 

before her heart was opened — she attended after- 
wards. By what process her heart was opened, we 
need not inquire. All God's operations are above 
our comprehension. Had he not opened Lydia's 
heart, she would not have attended to the gospel. 
The influence which he exerted on it was, doubtless, 
in harmony with the laws of mind and of moral 
agency. What God did for Lydia's heart, he does 
for the hearts of all who savingly attend to the gos- 
pel. 

When a man has been influenced, by whatever 
means, to give earnest heed to God's word, an im- 
portant point has been gained. No doubt many 
have fancied that they have reached this point, 
whose purpose has been slight and transient. It 
rested on no clear conviction, and sprang from no 
deep feeling, and was, therefore, like the passing 
cloud or the morning dew. But when, as the result 
of knowledge, serious deliberation, a conscious need 
of something which the world can never give, and 
an anxious aspiration after that unknown good, a 
man's mind is fully and firmly made up to test the 
truth and efficacy of the gospel, his condition is 
hopeful. He is not a Christian, but in a higher 
sense than was Agrippa, he is almost persuaded to 
be one. He is not of, but he is "not far from the 
kingdom of heaven." He may never be converted — 
yielding to the temptations of Satan, his convictions 
may be stifled, his conscience quieted, and his pur- 
pose abandoned. It may be a bitter ingredient in 
the cup of his everlasting remorse, that he came so 
near to heaven and missed it. He has, at least, 



62 



THE SEAL OF HEAVEN, 



reached a point that must be passed on the path to 
the kingdom of God. An intelligent, earnest, set- 
tled, resolute purpose to give heed to the doctrine 
of Christ, cherished for a longer or shorter period, 
and with a consciousness more or less distinct, must, 
in every case, precede the exercise of saving faith. 





CHAPTEE VII. 

THE WORLD'g TREATMENT OF THE 
QOgPEE. 

*§! 

J^y E should conclude, a priori, that a commu- 
fe^lH' nication to the world, bearing probable marks 
{glP§^ of i^s divine inspiration, would excite uni- 
versal attention and profound interest. If 
God condescends to speak to men, his words are 
entitled to be heard with reverence, faith, and sub- 
mission. If we have a volume claiming to be a 
revelation from him, accompanied by seeming proofs 
of its divine origin, it is our solemn duty and highest 
concern to investigate, in the most honest, diligent, 
and thorough manner, its claims to our confidence; 
and, being convinced of its truth, we should study 
it with the utmost care and docility. It would seem 
almost impossible that rational beings, ignorant of 
then obligations and their destiny, and dependent 
on God for instruction, should pursue any other 
course. It is sanctioned not less by philosophy than 
by revelation, and commends itself alike to the con- 
sciences of the learned and of the unlearned. 

Christianity purports to be a revelation from God. 



C4 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

It requires more than ordinary hardihood to affirm 
that it bears no signs of a divine origin. For more 
than eighteen centuries, it has not only maintained 
its ground, but made progress, among the most in- 
telligent nations of the world, and in the face of the 
most astute, determined, and indefatigable oppo- 
nents. It has not been destroyed by a baptism of 
blood, confuted by the researches and sophistries 
of its numerous assailants, nor sunk by the indiscre- 
tions, follies, and perversions of its professed friends. 
It has numbered among its devotees the men most 
renowned in literature and science, and the most 
eminent for virtue and usefulness. To affirm that a 
system that has so long maintained its influence in 
the world, has gained its triumphs in spite of the 
most formidable opposition, and has received the 
unbought homage of the wisest and best of man- 
kind, has no claim to attention, to say the least, 
savors more of self-conceit than modesty, and be- 
trays a lack of due respect for the opinion of the 
larger portion of civilized men. 

In what manner do irreligious men treat the gos- 
pel? Certainly, not with earnest attention, candid 
examination, and a firm purpose to obey it, should 
it be found to be true. The neglecters of Christian- 
ity may be reduced to a few classes. ' 

Some persons procrastinate attention to it. They 
admit its truth, are convinced in a measure of its 
importance, and are not at ease in their consciences ; 
but they neglect it in the eager pursuit of business 
or pleasure. They intend to become Christians, or, 
at least, to examine the claims of the gospel to their 



TREATMENT OF THE GOSPEL. 65 

faith and obedience. They would be alarmed at 
the thought of dying without religion; but as they 
are young, in vigorous health, are in no visible dan- 
ger of death, and the employments and cares of life 
are pressing upon them, they conclude that, just 
now, they may safely postpone attention to it. " Go 
thy way for this time," they say to the messenger of 
mercy ; " when I have a convenient season, I will 
call for thee." 

Indifference to the gospel distinguishes another 
very large class of unbelievers. Whether it be true 
or false, important or unimportant, are questions with 
which they do not concern themselves. They may 
not have deliberately and consciously, but they have 
really, resolved to have nothing to do with it. There 
may be a God ; they may have souls ; these souls 
may have imperishable interests; there may be a 
heaven and a hell ; their eternal destiny may depend 
on the doings of the passing hour: but they turn 
with loathing from these subjects to the interests and 
pleasures of the present life. "Whoever will may 
serve God and seek a portion in heaven; but for 
themselves they will worship no God but mammon, 
and aspire to no other heaven than this world. They 
are men of the world, having their good things in 
this life ; and are resolved, at least for the present, 
to seek no other. 

A self-sufficient spirit marks another class of skep- 
tics. Being wise in their own conceit, they desire 
no other religious guide than Keason. This is the 
god they profess to worship and obey. They will 
believe nothing that they cannot comprehend, and 



66 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

admit nothing that reason cannot demonstrate. To 
them the Bible is a book of fables, the history of 
Jesus a collection of myths, and the lives of the apos- 
tles the dreams of visionary enthusiasts. This class 
of skeptics had their type in the proud, philosophic 
Greeks, to whom, in the days of Paul, the preaching 
of Christ crucified was foolishness ; with this differ- 
ence, that many modern rationalists have the self- 
sufficiency and the unbelief without the learning of 
the ancient philosophers. 

Another class are prejudiced against Christianity 
from a misconception of its character. It is what 
the Scriptures describe it to be — neither more nor 
less. It is not responsible for the perversions to 
which it has been subjected by artful foes or mis- 
guided friends. It is not Romanism, or Protestant- 
ism, or Ritualism, or Rationalism. It has not per- 
haps its full and perfect development in any religious 
sect or party. It has been greatly disfigured and 
dishonored by the superstitions and ceremonies and 
dogmas with which it has been confounded. Many 
persons have received their impressions of it, not 
from the Scriptures or from the lives of its intelli- 
gent and honest devotees ; but from the spirit, forms, 
and works of secularized communions, in which there 
is the show of godliness without its power. Con- 
founding Christianity with the bitterness of sectarian- 
ism, the mummeries of superstition, and the tyranny 
of hierarchies, they reject it, without examination, 
as utterly incredible. 

In conclusion, it may be added, many persons 
are wilfully and wickedly hostile to Christianity. The 



TREATMENT OF THE GOSPEL. 67 

evil-doer described by Jesus is a representative of 
tins class; "Every one that doetli evil hateth the 
light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds 
should be reproved." John 3 : 20. This class love 
then sins, and are resolved to continue in them. 
They are enslaved by lusts, and have no desire to 
escape from then bondage. They are taken cap- 
tives by the devil at his will, and with the full con- 
currence of their own wills. Having no hope of 
happiness beyond the grave, they propose to make 
the most of life — to "eat, drink, and be merry;" to 
give full indulgence to their lusts, appetites, and pas- 
sions ; and to stifle, if possible, the reproofs of their 
consciences. The gospel tends to disturb their quiet 
and to arouse their fears. It points the sting of re- 
morse, and awakens painful forebodings of coming 
wrath. As the lightning reveals to the benighted 
Alpine traveller the abyss that yawns before him, so 
the gospel discloses to the reckless sinner the pit of 
unquenchable fire which he is approaching. The 
ungodly, who love their evil deeds, naturally hate 
the light in which their enormity appears. In many 
cases this hatred becomes intense, breaking forth in 
scoffing and blasphemies against the gospel. It is 
pervasive as well as fierce, extending from the word 
of God to the messenger who proclaims it, and to 
the church that exemplifies its excellence. 

It needs no argument to show that persons of the 
different classes above described are in no condition 
to examine, with patience and fairness, the evidences 
of Christianity. Their moral picture was drawn by 
the prophet Isaiah, and its faithfulness was attested 



68 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

by Jesus: "In them," in those who heard but did 
not believe the gospel, said he, "is fulfilled the 
prophecy of Esaias, which saith,'By hearing ye shall 
hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall 
see, and shall not perceive ; for this people's heart is 
waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and 
then eyes they have closed; lest at any time they 
should see with their eyes, and hear with then ears, 
and should understand with their heart, and should 
be converted, and I should heal them." Matt. 13 : 14, 
15. As a corpulent, sluggish, stupid man, half asleep, 
hears the most instructive discourse without under- 
standing it, or deriving profit from it ; so persons who 
hate the gospel, or are prejudiced against it, or deem 
themselves wise enough without it, or are indifferent 
to its claims, or are resolved to postpone the consider- 
ation of them, may listen to the most eloquent ser- 
mons, read the ablest defences of Christianity, or 
search the holy Scriptures, without instruction and 
without benefit. Nor is this strange. The popular 
estimation of the perverting influence of prejudice 
has found its utterance in the common adage : " None 
are so blind as those who will not see." 

It certainly is no reproach to Christianity, and 
does not derogate from the evidence of its divine 
authority, that j^ersons who are too indolent, or too 
much absorbed in secular pursuits, or too much 
under the power of prejudice, to examhie carefully 
its claims to their acceptance, do not perceive its 
excellence, or believe it ; or that they openly reject, 
ridicule, and oppose it. It may sometimes serve to 
weaken the force of their example, to inquire what 



TREATMENT OE THE GOSPEL. 



69 



it is they do believe and admire. Is it anything that 
is more firmly authenticated, that presents stronger 
motives to an upright life, that opens richer sourees 
of consolation hi the hour of affliction, or that reveals 
a brighter prospect beyond the grave, than "the 
glorious gospel of the blessed God ?" 





CHAPTER VIII. 



THE QOD AND LAW OF THE BIBjLE. 



* MAN who comes to the Scriptures with an 




^ 23|L honest, earnest, resolute purpose to examine 
their claims to his confidence, will very nat- 
urally have his attention directed to the 
character of the God revealed in them. All religion 
has reference to God, either to the true God, or to a 
false god or gods. It is conformed to the character 
of the deity whom it is intended to honor. It is 
true or false, pure or impure, ennobling or debasing, 
as the object of its homage is real or imaginary, good 
or evil, holy or unholy, glorious or mean. 

The character of God is not formally revealed in 
the Bible. His existence, as previously stated, is 
taken for granted. "In the beginning," it is said, 
"God created the heaven and the earth;" but it is 
not stated who he is, or what are his perfections. 
His attributes were incidentally and gradually dis- 
closed, sometimes by explicit declarations, and some- 
times by recording his works and his word. The 



THE GOD OP THE BIBLE. 71 

sacred writers occasionally furnish sublime and awe- 
inspiring representations of the Divine character. 
Take the following specimens: "Who is like unto 
thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, 
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing won- 
ders?" Exod. 15:11. 

" The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, 
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and 
transgression and sin, and that will by no means 
clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers 
upon the children, and upon the children's children, 
unto the third and to the fourth generation." Exod. 
34 : 6, 7. 

"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither 
shall I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend up into 
heaven, thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, 
behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the 
morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ; 
even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right 
hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness 
shaU cover me ; even the night shall be light about 
me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ; but 
the night shineth as the day : the darkness and the 
light are both alike to thee." Psa. 139 : 7-12. 

" Who hath measured the waters in the hollow 
of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, 
and comprehended the dust of the earth in a meas- 
ure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the 
hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of 
the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? 
With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, 



72 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught 
him knowledge, and showed to him the way of un- 
derstanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of 
a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the 
balance : behold, he taketh up the isles as a very 
little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, 
nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt- offering. 
All nations before him are as nothing ; and they are 
counted to him less than nothing, and vanity." Isa. 
40 : 12-17. 

" God is a Spirit : and they that worship him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth." John 
4:24. 

" Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God 
Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou King of 
saints. "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify 
tlry name? for thou only art holy: for all nations 
shall come and worship before thee ; for thy judg- 
ments are made manifest." Rev. 15 : 3, 4. 

In short, God is revealed in the Scriptures as a 
Spirit, invisible, eternal, self-existent, unchangeable, 
all-pervading, infinite in power, wisdom, holiness, 
goodness, and mercy; the Creator, Owner, and Pre- 
server of all things ; the moral Ruler of the universe ; 
the Judge of the living and the dead ; the Fountain 
of all happiness, and the only Saviour of sinners. 
The Divine character, as revealed in the Bible, com- 
bines all that is lovely and all that is venerable in 
moral perfections, with all that is great and glorious 
in physical attributes. The anxious inquirer knows 
nothing and can conceive nothing better than these 
scriptural representations of the Deity. It is impos- 



THE LAW OF THE BIBLE. 73 

sible for the human intellect to form purer, higher, 
nobler, or more attractive conceptions of him. The 
God of the Scriptures excels, as far as the heavens 
are above the earth, all the gods of heathenism, 
ancient or modern. This description of God com- 
mends itself to the understanding and conscience of 
the thoughtful man. He is convinced that such a 
God is indispensable to the welfare of the intelligent 
universe. Without such a fluler there can be no 
order or stability in the world, and no hope for intel- 
ligent and immortal creatures. While "the fool" 
desires that there shall be " no God," the awakened, 
earnest seeker for truth not only admits his existence, 
but approves his character, and perceives that he is 
qualified for the government of the wtfrld. 

THE DIVINE LAW, 

That God is entitled to the homage of intelligent 
creatures is one of the plainest dictates of reason. 
The command : " Give unto the Lord the glory due 
unto his name," commends itself to every man's con- 
science. If God is great, he should be feared ; if he 
is holy, he should be loved ; and if he is good, he 
should be praised. The God of the Bible is great, 
hoty, and good, and worthy of supreme and univer- 
sal veneration, love, and obedience. 

Keason, which discerns that honor is due to the 
Creator, does not so clearly perceive the kinds of 
service which should be rendered to him; but his 
law is plainly revealed in the Scriptures. The ten 
commandments, proclaimed from Sinai amid " thun- 



74 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

ders and lightnings, clouds and smoke," accompanied 
by the sound of a trumpet and the quaking of the 
mountain, are a wonderful compendium of human 
duty. In eight prohibitory and two directive pre- 
cepts, it sets forth the whole duty of man. These 
commandments are epitomized by the great Teach- 
er : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 
This is the first and great commandment. And the 
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all 
the law and the prophets." Matt. 22 : 37-40. "Love 
is the fulfilling of the law." Supreme love to God 
and sincere love to men, in the actions to which they 
naturally lead, meet all the demands of the divine 
law. Supreme love to God will show itself in cheer- 
ful obedience to his commands. " This is the love of 
God, that we keep his commandments : and his com- 
mandments are not grievous." 1 John 5 : 4. Sincere 
love to men will display itself in a due regard for 
their rights, and a tender concern for their wants and 
woes; "for love worketh no ill to his neighbor." 
Rom. 13 : 10. 

The law is not only epitomized, that it may be 
easily remembered and meditated on, but it is also 
enlarged by the addition of various explanatory pre- 
cepts. The law is magnified by the instructions, 
promises, and examples, which reveal its spirituality, 
breadth, and vigor. The writers of the Old Testa- 
ment and of the New imite in defining, exalting, and 
enforcing it. 

The excellence of the law was illustrated in the 



THE LAW OF THE BIBLE. 75 

life of Jesus. Example is more instructive and influ- 
ential than precept. The law as seen on the pages 
of inspiration is good ; as it shines in the life of Jesus 
it is divine. His purity, beneficence, devotion to 
truth and zeal for the glory of God were a living ex- 
hibition of the perfection of the law. It was written 
in his heart, and embodied in his spirit and deport- 
ment. He was love incarnate, and all his words and 
deeds were the outflowings of love. He was in body, 
soul, and spirit, in word and deed, what the law re- 
quired him to be. . What it demanded of him, it 
demands of all whose nature he bore. "He took 
not on him the nature of angels ; but he took on him 
the seed of Abraham." " Forasmuch as the children 
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took 
part of the same," and has in all things set them an 
example worthy of their imitation. 

The law of God, as revealed from Sinai, expound- 
ed in the Scriptures, and exemplified in the history 
of Jesus, is perfect. It condemns every evil, and 
requires every virtue. It demands not merely a fair 
exterior, but a pure heart. " Behold," said the psalm- 
ist, "thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in 
the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wis- 
dom." In the view of the law covetousness is idol- 
atry, lust is adultery, and anger is murder. Not to 
love Christ is to incur the most terrible malediction. 
1 Cor. 16 : 22. The divine law is adapted to men of 
all periods, all nations, and all classes. By it kings 
are taught to reign in righteousness, and subjects to 
obey with cheerfulness ; the rich to be humble, tem- 
perate, and charitable; the poor to be industrious, 



76 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

contented, and happy ; and all men to be self-deny- 
ing, upright, generous, and devout. If it were uni- 
versally and perfectly obeyed, earth would regain its 
long-lost Eden. Wars, oppression, and injustice 
would be banished from the world, and peace would 
spread her dovelike wings over all nations. All ex- 
cesses and impurities would disappear from among 
men. All penitentiaries, houses of correction, and 
means of punishment would, soon be forgotten. God 
would cease to be dishonored and blasphemed in his 
own world. We should need no locks, nor bars, nor 
police, nor courts of justice to secure the rights and 
maintain the order of society. Love, harmony, and 
joy would reign throughout all realms. Everywhere 
want would find supplies, sorrow meet with sympa- 
thy, and wounds secure a balm. Then from every 
land and family and heart songs of grateful praise 
and heartfelt adoration would ascend to the Father 
of mercies,- the universal Kuler. 

The anxious inquirer examines the law of God, 
not hi a captious or self-sufficient spirit, but desiring 
to know what it demands, and what are the proofs 
of its authority. The more he meditates on it, the 
more clearly he perceives its reasonableness, its 
beauty, its perfection, its divinity, and the more im- 
pressively is it commended to his conscience. It 
searches his heart, reveals his motives, and brings to 
light the hidden things of darkness. He feels a con- 
viction that the Author of the law is the Creator of 
his heart, and that the law is wisely adapted to its 
regulation and improvement. The law is at vari- 
ance with the wicked inclinations and tastes of the 



THE LAW OF THE BIBLE 



77 



man — it condemns and troubles and irritates him ; 
but his conscience pronounces it good. He per- 
ceives its harmony with the revealed character of 
God and with the relations which man sustains to 
God, and its adaptation to promote the happiness 
of man. 





CHAPTEE IX. 

CONVICTION OF J31N. 

j^ONYICTION of sin lies at the foundation of 
all time piety. There can be no repentance, 
reformation or spiritual life, without it. Most 
men who have been reared under the light of the 
gospel readily admit that, in some sense and to some 
extent, they are sinners. A person is rarely seen 
who claims to be perfect. The most corrupt and 
the most virtuous alike confess then' guilt. They 
have done some things which they should not have 
done, and have left undone some things which they 
should have done. This general conviction of sin 
is, however, vague, slight, and inoperative. It pro- 
duces no sorrow, usually no seriousness, and at most, 
only spasmodic and transient efforts for amendment. 
Genuine conviction for sin is quite another matter- 
something far deeper and more abiding and influen- 
tial. 

The thoughtful man cannot conceal his depravity 
and guilt from himself. He is conscious of his 
estrangement from God, of the evil bias of his inch- 
nations, and of his bondage to his appetites and pas- 
sions. He knows that God is entitled to his horn- 



CONVICTION OF SIN. 79 

age; but he does not worship him, or his worship 
is formal and heartless. He perceives and con- 
fesses that the law of God is good ; but he does not 
keep it. Of all beings in the universe, God, he ad- 
mits, is most worthy of his adoring meditations ; but 
God is not in all his thoughts. He feels, and cannot 
but feel, that his heart is not right in the sight of 
God — that it is dark, morally deranged and miser- 
able. 

When a man begins seriously to examine his 
character in the light of God's word, he is reminded 
of his flagrant transgressions. If he has been ad- 
dicted to vice or crimes, his iniquities are set in 
array before his mind. He calls to remembrance 
his profanities, his impurities, his frauds, his injus- 
tice, and his violence, with all their aggravations. 
Long-forgotten sins are vividly presented to his 
mind. Conscience and memory diligently explore 
eveiy nook and corner of his past life to discover 
his sins. He is amazed and confounded by their 
number, greatness, and fatal influence. 

If he honestly pursues the investigation, he will 
soon perceive that his sins are not limited to the 
gross iniquities that are usually condemned by the 
world. When examined by the strict and searching 
Word of God, his life appears to have been a con- 
tinuous stream of evil. He has done nothing from 
love to God, respect to his authority, or a desire to 
promote his glory. His conduct has been influenced 
by his own inclination, interest, or caprice; by a 
regard to custom, public sentiment, or human author- 
ity; but never by reverence for the will of God. 



80 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

He has been "without God in the world." In none 
of his plans, labors, or pleasures, has he consulted 
the law or the glory of his Maker. All his words 
and deeds have been tainted by forgetfulness of God, 
and neglect of his authority. The divine rule is : 
" Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 
all to the glory of God;" and every deed not con- 
formed to this rule is sin ; but he has not followed it. 
The inquirer, if he deals candidly with himself, 
will quickly learn that his sins of omission are as 
numerous and hateful as his sins of commission. 
God, who is rich in goodness, watched over him in 
helpless infancy, supplied Iris wants before he knew 
from whom his blessings came, guided him safely 
along the slippery and dangerous paths of youth, and 
throughout life has surrounded him with unnum- 
bered mercies. Morning, noon, and night. God's 
favors have been multiplied unto him. Goodness 
and mercy — an exhaustless stream — have followed 
him all the days of his life. These benefits he has 
received and enjoyed without gratitude or praise to 
his Benefactor. The gifts have been valued, but 
the Giver has been neglected. The divine blessings 
have been perverted to purposes of pride, pleasure, 
and excess ; but have awakened no sense of obliga- 
tion or emotion of thankfulness. Conviction is forced 
upon the mind of the candid investigator that he 
has disregarded duty, or performed it in a spirit 
offensive to God. Truth is precious; but he has 
not prized it, and sought for it, as for hidden treas- 
ure. He has neglected the Bible, or read it in a 
careless, captious, or disobedient spirit. The Lord's 



CONVICTION OF SIN. 81 

clay is a season of sacred rest, devotion, and enjoy- 
ment ; but he has desecrated it to purposes of busi- 
ness, pleasure, or vice. The Lord's house is the 
home and delight of his people ; but the sinner 
neglects it, or attends it from custom or for amuse- 
ment. God himself, reasonably and pathetically, 
complains of the neglect of his creatures: "Hear, 
O heavens, and give ear, O earth ; for the Lord hath 
spoken : I have nourished and brought up children, 
and they have rebelled against me. The ox know- 
eth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but 
Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." 
Isa. 1 : 2, 3. 

• When the anxious inquirer adds his sins of omis- 
sion to those of commission, he is filled with dismay. 
He sees that they transcend his power of computa- 
tion. They are numerous as the stars of the nightly 
firmament. When he calmly surveys them, in the 
light of God's word, and in contrast with his own 
responsibilities and the divine character, they ap- 
pear as red as crimson and as ponderous as moun- 
tains. His guilt he's grievously on his conscience, 
and peace forsakes his bosom. 

The man has yet much to learn of his real char- 
acter and c'ondition. The bitter stream must be 
traced to its fountain. As a man "thinketh in his 
heart, so is he." "From within, out of the heart of 
men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, 
murder, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, las- 
civiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolish- 
ness; all these things come from within and defile 

the man." Mark 7 : 21, 23. How corrupt must be 

4* 



82 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

the source from which these evils flow. The pencil 
of inspiration has drawn the picture of man's nat- 
ural heart in gloomy and revolting colors. It is 
deceitful, Jer. 17:9; hard, 1 Sam. 6:6; stony, Ezek. 
36:26, Zech. 7:12; set to do evil, Eccl. 9:3; per- 
verse, Prov. 12 : 8 ; prone to depart from God, Heb. 
3 : 12 ; full of iniquity, lsa. 32 : 6 ; of evil imagina- 
tions, Gen. 6:5; of covetousness, Eom. 1 : 29 ; and 
of lewdness, 2 Pet. 2 : 14. These loathsome qualities 
of the human heart are all displayed in the lives of 
wicked men recorded in the Scriptures. The hon- 
est inquirer after truth is constrained to admit that 
his own heart corresponds with the scriptural repre- 
sentation of the natural heart of man. Formerly, 
it may be, he entertained a favorable opinion of its 
moral qualities. His life was not irreproachable, 
but his heart, he imagined, was better than his life. 
He did wrong, but he meant no harm. Increasing 
light has changed his view of the matter. He now 
sees that his heart is the source of all sorts of cor- 
ruption. In it, there is nothing good. It is a stran- 
ger to holiness. Its thoughts, ill affections, its aims, 
are all imperfect. All that is terrible in the punish- 
ment of sin, all that is winning in the love of God, 
all that is touching in the sufferings of Christ, all 
that is attractive in the glories of heaven, are in- 
sufficient to move it. He understands, as he never 
understood before, the import of the familiar stanza : 

' ' The rocks can rend ; the earth can quake ; 
The seas can roar ; the mountains shake ; 
Of feeling all things show some sign, 
But this unfeeling heart of mine." 



CONVICTION OF SIN. 83 

He finds, too, that his heart is as deceitful as it is 
insensible. Hypocrisy is mingled with all his pro- 
fessions, repentance, and prayers. His heart not 
only deceives itself and men ; but it seeks to deceive 
God. It endeavors to please him with forms, pro- 
fessions, and appearances, in which there is no sin- 
cerity and earnestness. In short, he sees that his 
heart is a sink of corruption, a cage of unclean 
birds, a den of ravenous beasts. When he would 
pray, his thoughts not only wander, but are impure 
and blasphemous. His repentance, lackiDg depth 
and thoroughness, needs to be repented of. His 
good resolutions are liable to be frustrated by the 
sudden rising of passions, the insidious workings of 
lust or mere forgetfulness. It is not strange if he 
conclude that his heart is the worst of all hearts. 
He knows his own heart ; but he cannot know the 
hearts of others. Comparing his heart with the 
lives of others, he concludes that none are so vile 
and guilty as he. He thinks none ever had a 
heart so proud, unfeeling, deceitful, fickle, full of evil 
thoughts, agitated by passions and estranged from 
God, as his. He does not adopt the. language of 
hyperbole, but utters the sober and deep conviction 
of his heart, when he says with Paul, I am "the 
chief of sinners." 

Sin appears to him now in an entirely new light. 
Once it seemed to him as a trifle, an infirmity, at 
most a peccadillo ; but now, viewing it by the teach- 
ing of God's word, as a transgression of his law and 
in contrast with his character, it becomes in his 
view "exceeding sinful." He estimates its enor- 



81 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

inity by the authority which it sets at naught, the 
holiness which it offends, the goodness which it 
abuses, the power which it defies, the happiness 
which it sacrifices, the punishment which it incurs, 
and the noble powers which it prostitutes and ruins. 
He sees that sin is not merely an evil, but that it is 
the evil — the only evil in the universe. All suffering 
flows from sin. Had there been no sin, there had 
been no tears, no pain, no death ; paradise had 
never lost its bloom, the fires of hell had never been 
kindled, and the blood of Calvary had never been 
shed. 

The enlightened sinner admits the justice of his 
condemnation before God. He approves of God's 
character, law, and administration. He has noth- 
ing to say why sentence should not be pronounced 
against him. When he calls to remembrance his 
multiplied and hateful sins, and examines the man- 
ifold and loathsome corruptions of his heart, he is 
ashamed, confounded, and his mouth is closed. He 
feels and confesses that he is guilty, and deserving- 
punishment. If he is doomed to perdition, God's 
throne, the self-condemned sinner concedes, is un- 
tarnished. 




CHAPTEK X. 



SALVATION NOT OF WOF(K£. 

7 ^ALYATION is the supreme desire of the awa- 
\rgl? kened, convicted, self-condemned sinner. His 
t^l} guilt is an intolerable burden. The corrup- 
tions of his heart are an insufferable plague. He 
knows that he can never have peace — real happi- 
ness — in estrangement from God. There is scarcely 
anything that he would not give, or do, or endure, 
to secure deliverance from- sin and its dreaded con- 
sequences. 

That the anxious sinner should endeavor to 
escape from the just punishment of sin is perfectly 
natural. Self-preservation is nature's first law. No 
man ever felt himself to be a lost sinner without 
putting forth efforts to obtain salvation. But what 
can he do for his relief ? 

The world can afford him no aid in his dark and 
desolate condition. Its wealth cannot purchase par- 
don ; its pleasures cannot satisfy the longings of the 
mind; its honors cannot countervail the shame of 
sin; its philosophy cannot guide him to life eternal; 
and its friendship is enmity with God. Were the 
troubled sinner possessor of the world, he could nei- 



8G THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

ther atone for his guilt nor heal the maladies of his 
soul. In his hour of greatest anxiety and need, he 
turns in utter despair from the world. It has no 
balm for his wounds and no cordial for his fears. 
Instinctively he looks to his own works and resour- 
ces for relief. 

His first attempt is at reformation. He resolves, 
with sanguine hopes of success, on changing the 
course of his life. He proposes to abandon his ob- 
vious, outward, and gross sins. He soon finds, how- 
ever, that he is not his own master. " He that com- 
mitteth sin is the servant of sin." His lusts are 
stronger than his resolutions, and his corrupt habits 
than his convictions. He may abstain from open 
acts of transgression; but his passions tumultuate 
and his vile lusts clamor for indulgence. His stren- 
uous efforts to avoid sinning proceed, he perceives, 
from fear rather than love — from a desire to escape 
punishment, rather than to honor God. He can no 
more obey the divine law than he can make a world. 
He can as easily raise the dead as cleanse his own 
heart from sin. He assents that the law is " holy, 
just, and good;" but he is "carnal, sold under sin." 

The partial reformation of the anxious inquirer 
is encouraging, and for a season it may satisfy the 
demands of his conscience. He may seem to him- 
self to be making commendable progress in the way 
of righteousness ; but, if he is destined to become a 
Christian, increasing light and deeper experience will 
dissipate his delusion. He will perceive that the bed 
is shorter than that he can stretch himself on it, and 
the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself 



SALVATION NOT OF WORKS. 87 

in it. Isa. 28 : 20. The law demands nothing short 
of perfect and ceaseles's obedience; and no act of 
his life, no word of his lips, and no affection of his 
heart, comes up to the divine standard. He despairs 
of justification by a strict compliance with the law ; 
but still he hopes, by penances and sacrifices, to 
supplement and establish his own righteousness. 

The inquiring sinner endeavors to atone for his 
transgressions. He supposes that by grief and tears 
and groans and a sad countenance, and alms and 
prayers and fasting, and other austerities, he may in 
a measure expiate his guilt, and render himself wor- 
thy of divine acceptance. He earnestly .endeavors 
by these means to propitiate his incensed Sovereign. 
The sinner sets before his mind all the solemnities of 
death, the terrors of judgment, and the woes of per- 
dition, that he may aggravate his sorrow; and sor- 
rows most of all that his sorrow is so slight. He 
prizes tears more highly than jewels ; and would give 
all his possessions, if he could be an earnest, con- 
stant weeper. His groans, day and night, are poured 
out before the Lord. He wears a gloomy counte- 
nance. He gives his goods to feed and clothe the 
poor ; and aims, by the abundance of his alms, to 
appease his conscience for his past penuriousness. 
His prayers are mingled with almost every breath ; 
as if, by their frequency, he would make amends for 
their want of sincerity and faith. He denies himself 
the innocent enjoyments of life, that by the suffer- 
ings of the body he may expiate the sins of the soul. 

As knowledge increases, the self-righteous in- 
quirer discovers that all these expedients for the 



88 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

removal of sin are unavailing. They are totally 
inadequate to the expiation* of human guilt. They 
are of man's device, and like the rest of his religious 
schemes, are foolishness in the sight of God. They 
are not demanded by* the law, nor commensurate 
with the claims of justice, nor suited to the genius 
of the gospel. They are, when practised to obtain 
justification, or to propitiate the divine favor, a re- 
jection of Christ, and a cleaving to the covenant of 
works. 

These remarks would be true, even if these aus- 
tere exercises were in their nature perfect ; but they 
are not so. They are mixed with evil ; nay, they are 
only evil. They are wrong in principle and aim, and 
defective in measure. They are without love, with- 
out faith, and without holiness — the corrupt fruits 
of a corrupt tree. All this the true penitent learns, 
confesses, and deplores. 

Christ demands the unconditional submission of 
the sinner. He must heartily forsake all his sins, 
renounce his own righteousness and merit, consent 
to obey Christ fully, and accept salvation as the free 
gift of God. At these conditions the perverse heart 
revolts. They are not in harmony with its views, 
tastes, and feelings. The sinner intensely desires 
salvation; but he is not yet willing to accept it on 
God's terms. The hardest task in religion is to 
renounce self-righteousness. This is the strong tower 
in which Satan makes his last and most desperate 
fight. The sinner may find it difficult to mortify his 
secret lusts, renounce his cherished idols, and break 
his evil habits ; but it is still more difficult for him 



SALVATION NOT OF WORKS. 89 

to cease endeavoring to establish his own righteous- 
ness, and submit himself to the righteousness of God. 
Eom. 10:3. 

The following story is related of Eev. James Her- 
vey, the eloquent author of " Meditations among the 
Tombs." He was for several years a minister of the 
English Episcopal church, before he "knew the grace 
of God in truth." His health failing, he was advised 
to follow a plough, that he might inhale the air from 
the fresh-turned sod. In his neighborhood there 
was a pious ploughman, who had been instructed in 
divine things by the eminent Dr. Doddridge. This 
laborer Mr. Hervey selected to follow. One day, 
while accompanying the ploughman, the clergyman 
asked him, " What is the hardest thing in religion ?" 
He modestly declined answering the question, and 
requested Mr. Hervey to do it. He replied : " The 
hardest thing in religion is to deny one's sinful self;" 
and earnestly commended this self-denial. The 
ploughman, begging leave to differ from him, said: 
" I think the hardest thing in religion is to deny one's 
righteous self." Mr. Hervey then thought the plough- 
man a simpleton, but lived to see and acknowledge 
his error, and to rejoice in a righteousness imputed, 
and to quote with high commendation the words of 
John Wesley : 

"Jesus, thy blood and righteousness 
My beauty are, and glorious dress ; 
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, 
With joy shall I lift up my head." 

To the point of renouncing his own righteousness 
must every convicted sinner come, before he will ac- 



90 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

cept " the righteousness which is of God by faith." 
Phil. 3 : 9. Some inquirers quickly reach this conclu- 
sion. They know themselves to be vile and guilty and 
helpless. They despair of justification by their own 
works or sacrifices or worthiness. Having no right- 
eousness to plead before God, they come to Jesus 
with the words of Toplady on their lips : 

"In my hand no price I bring; 
Simply to thy cross I cling." 

With others the case is very different. They 
were brought up religiously, have trusted in their 
morality, have boasted that they were better than 
many professors of Christianity, and have scorned 
the thought of receiving salvation on the same terms 
as thieves, debauchees, and murderers. Their pride, 
then self-respect, and then- desire of consistency, 
strongly resist their acceptance of salvation " with- 
out money and without price." In the days of 
Christ's humiliation, " the publicans and the harlots" 
went into the kingdom of God before the scribes 
and the Pharisees. Mat. xxi. 31. All sinners must 
be saved on the same terms ; and all are equally 
welcome to salvation, who will accept it on these 
terms. As light increases, the most self-sufficient 
mquirer is constrained to confess that his righteous- 
ness is nothing better than filthy rags. He dies to 
the law. He dares not mention his prayers, or tears, 
or penitence, or alms, or good resolutions, as the 
ground of his justification before God. He aban- 
dons every false refuge, every vain plea and every 
delusive hope, and is shut up to the necessity of ac- 



SALVATION NOT OF WORKS. 91 

cepting Christ as tlie all-sufficient and infinitely 
merciful Saviour. 

There is, as has been already intimated, great 
diversity in the experiences by which inquirers are 
brought to accept the gospel. All that is maintained 
is, that a sinner must despair of acceptance with 
God, either in whole or in part, by his works or 
merit. It matters not whether this point be reached 
by a process long or short, a conflict more or less 
severe, or sorrows of greater or less poignancy; it 
must be reached, and consciously reached, before 
his salvation is possible. He should accept the con- 
clusion without delay. It is reasonable, plainly re- 
vealed in the Scriptures, sanctioned by the enlight- 
ened conscience, and enforced by the Spirit of God ; 
and only the pride and perversity of the heart render 
its acceptance difficult. When these are overcome 
by truth and grace, the sinner, casting away his own 
righteousness, is prepared for a joyful reception of 
Jesus. 




& 






CHAPTEK XI 



RECJEPTIO^ Of THE QOgPEL. 






_ O receive the gospel is to embrace Christ, 
r %^& wno * s ^ s author, sum, and glory. Various 
W$ p terms are used in the Scriptures to denote that 
exercise of the mind and heart by which a sinner 
becomes a partaker of the blessings treasured up in 
Christ. It is coming to him, receiving him, trusting 
in him, submitting to him, obeying him, but esjoe- 
cially it is believing in Jam. Faith, which is equiva- 
lent to believing, occupies, as has been already 
shown, a prominent place in the economy of human 
salvation. 

Nothing is more difficult than for a proud, world- 
ly, sin-enslaved man to believe in Jesus. " How can 
ye believe," said Jesus to the Jews, " which receive 
honor one of another, and seek not the honor that 
cometh from God only?" John 5: 44 The diffi- 
culty of believing arises, not from the obscurity of 
the gospel, or its lack of evidence, or from an inca- 
pacity to weigh the evidence, or a want of time to 
examine it ; but from an indisposition to yield to its 
force. The Jews could not — that is, they would not 



RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL. 93 

— believe in Christ, because he and Ins doctrine were 
unpopular, and they preferred the praise of men to 
the favor of God. The anxious sinner supposes that 
he is willing to receive the gospel. He endeavors to 
believe. He would, if he possessed it, give a world 
to be able to believe; but nothing seems to him so 
dark as the gospel, and nothing so incomprehensible 
as faith. The obstacles, however, to believing are 
all in his own heart. He would believe ; but there 
is some lust which he is unwilling to mortify, some 
duty which he is not ready to perform, some re- 
proach for Christ which he is ashamed to bear, or 
some false hope which he will not consent to relin- 
quish. Lashed by a guilty conscience, and terrified 
by the wrath of God, he struggles to believe ; but 
his evil heart is averse to accepting the conditions 
involved in believing. 

On the other hand, nothing is more easy than for 
a penitent, humble sinner to believe in Jesus. To 
him faith is the simplest of all exercises. He doubts 
the genuineness of his faith, because it is so easy, 
and so unlike what he had supposed that it would be. 
" If this is faith," he says to himself, "why did I not 
sooner believe ? " He is amazed that he should have 
labored so long and painfully to understand what 
was so plain, and to do what was so easy. He is 
surprised that every one to whom the gospel is 
preached does not promptly and gladly receive it. 
He even supposes that what is so clear to himself 
he can explain to others ; and that what cost him so 
little effort to do he can induce others to do. 

It is now proper to inquire more fully into the 



94: THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

nature of faith. On this subject much has been said 
and written to little purpose. 

Faith is not knowledge. It implies knowledge, but 
differs from it. There may be knowledge without 
faith, though there cannot be faith without knowledge. 
Faith is the sequel of knowledge. Faith comes " by 
hearing;" and hearing is worthless, except as it con- 
veys knowledge. "Knowledge puffeth up;" faith 
humbles and purifies. 

Faith is not a persuasion that one is converted. All 
believers are converted ; but multitudes believe them- 
selves to be converted who do not believe in Christ. 
Nothing is an object of faith which is not revealed 
in the Scriptures ; but no man can find it revealed in 
them that he is converted. He may mistake tran- 
sient emotions, or self-formed resolutions, or wild 
dreams and fancies, for conversion, and confound 
this delusion with faith in Christ; but faith is no 
delusion. Its object is truth — divine, eternal, change- 
less truth. 

Nor is faith a mere persuasion that the Scriptures 
are true. Most persons reared in a Christian coun- 
try admit the truth of the gospel. They have a per- 
suasion, more or less distinct, of its divinity. It 
modifies their views on many subjects, commands 
their present respect, and inspires them with the 
purpose of future repentance. Their faith is not 
simply a profession, but a reality. They are con- 
scious of possessing it, and furnish in various ways 
proofs of its existence. Their faith, however, is not 
saving. It is wholly inoperative. It does not imply 
repentance, regeneration, or love. It is compatible 



EECETTION OF THE GOSPEL. 95 

with a life of decided ungodliness. Such a faith 
Agrippa possessed. He believed the prophets, and 
avowed that he was almost persuaded to be a Chris- 
tian ; but was far from being converted. Acts 26 : 27, 
28. "Among the chief rulers, many believed on 
Jesus ; but they did not confess him, lest they should 
be put out of the synagogue : for they loved the 
praise of men more than the praise of God." John 
12 : 42, 43. These rulers had faith, but not the faith 
which purines the heart. They believed, but not to 
the saving of their souls. They had the faith de- 
scribed by James, 2: 17: "Even so faith, if it hath 
not works, is dead, being alone." 

It is easier to tell what faith is not than what it 
is. Those who have exercised it understand its na- 
ture; to others it is obscure. "The Scriptures," says 
Pascal, " are not so much adapted to the head as to 
the heart of man ; they are intelligible only to those 
who have their hearts right; and to others they are 
obscure and uninteresting." Faith is the exercise of 
an enlightened intellect, controlled by a rightly dis- 
posed heart. It is not the mere persuasion that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Saviour of the world. It i» 
more ; it is such a conviction of this truth as implies 
an approval of his character, a love of his person, 
trust in his merit and promises, the love of his truth, 
submission to his authority, and the commencement 
of a life of holiness and devotion. Genuine faith is 
- inseparable from repentance, regeneration, and all 
the fruits of the Spirit. Faith, then, is a cordial em- 
bracing of the gospel, with a grateful acceptance of 
the privileges which it confers, and a cheerful com- 



96 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

pliance with the obligations which it imposes. Sav- 
ing faith is a sincere, deep, abiding, joyful, grateful 
acceptance of Christ as he is revealed in the Scrip- 
tures as Prophet, Priest, and King. It is a conscious 
trust in Jesus. The believer may have perplexing 
doubts of the genuineness of his faith: it may be 
exceedingly feeble, and differ widely from his precon- 
ceived notions of it; but he knows that he exercises 
a confidence in Christ, and is the subject of affec- 
tions and emotions to which, in time past, he was a 
stranger. He could as easily be persuaded that he 
does not exist, as that he has not experienced a 
great inward, moral change. 

The gospel appears to the believer in a new light. 
He perceives its beauty, harmony, and excellence. 
He sees that it is precisely adapted to his necessities. 
It reveals such a Saviour as his depravity, guilt, and 
helplessness have rendered necessary ; one infinite in 
power, wisdom, mercy, and faithfulness; one ever 
and everywhere present and all-sufficient. It offers 
salvation on terms wisely adapted to the sinner's 
condition. If it were promised only on the payment 
of a sum of money, then the poor would be exclu- 
ded from its enjoyment; but it is "without money 
and without price." If it could be secured only by 
a long and wearisome pilgrimage, then the lame, the 
feeble, and the sick would never attain to it ; but the 
sinner need not ascend into heaven, or descend in 
the deep, to find Christ, as the word, the gospel, is 
nigh unto him, even in his mouth and in his heart. 
Eom. 10 : 6-8. If it could be obtained only by the 
amiable and moral, then the vicious and the ungodly 



RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL. 97 

would have no share in it ; but Christ came to save 
even "the chief of sinners." If it depended on the 
attainment of great knowledge, then the unlearned 
and the weak-minded would be precluded from all 
participation in it ; but its blessings are revealed even 
"unto babes." Matt. 11:25. "It is of faith, that 
it might be by grace." Bom. 4:16. If it is of faith, 
then it is graciously suited to the sinner's condition. 
The poor, the lame, the sick, the vicious, the profli- 
gate, the profane, the illiterate, the ignorant, the 
wretched, may all believe. Nothing is required in 
the exercise of faith but a knowledge of the gospel 
and an obedient heart. Anywhere — at home or 
abroad, on the land or on the sea, at large or in 
prison; under any circumstances — in poverty, sick- 
ness, pain, and distress ; and at any time — by day 
or by night, in youth or in old age, in the vigor of 
life or on the verge^of death, the sinner, willing to do 
God's will, may believe, and believing, gain eternal 
life. Seeing how admirably and mercifully the gospel 
is fitted to his perilous and wretched state, he embra- 
ces it with overwhelming wonder and delight. He 
would be saved by none but Jesus, and in no other 
way than that which he has prescribed. 

The believer sees the glory of God in the w T ork of 
salvation as he never saw it before. It shines in all 
his works. His wisdom, power, and goodness ap- 
pear in the heavens above and in the earth beneath. 
His holiness and justice are dimly revealed in the 
dispensations of his providence and clearly in his 
law and threatenings. In the gospel his full-orbed 
glory is displayed. 



98 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

' ' Here the whole Deity is known ; 
Nor dares creature guess 
Which of his glories brightest shone, 
His justice or his grace." 

The holiness of God never appears so lovely, nor his 
justice so venerable, nor his mercy so melting, nor 
his truth so winning, as when they are seen in the 
cross of Christ. To the sinner he appears as a root 
out of dry ground, without form or comeliness ; to 
the believer he is revealed as altogether lovely — as 
invested with whatever is pure and beautiful and 
noble and attractive in humanity, and possessed of 
all that is great and holy and good and glorious in 
divinity. The convert can sing: 

"All human beauties, all divine, 
In my Beloved meet and shine." 

The believer seems to himself to have passed into 
a new world. He sees God in everything. The 
mountains proclaim his everlasting power, and the 
fertile smiling valleys his unbounded goodness. " The 
mountains and the hills break forth into singing, and 
all the trees of the field clap their hands ;" and every- 
thing, great and small, beautiful and rugged, joins in 
the hymn of praise to the Creator. In this adora- 
tion the believer intelligently and heartily unites; 
but when he turns his eyes to the cross, he catches 
a loftier inspiration, and in nobler strains joins the 
blood-washed throng in singing the doxology : "Unto 
him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in 
his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto God and his Father ; to him be glory and do- 
minion for ever and ever. Amen." Rev. 1:5, 6. 





CHAPTER XII. 



£AVINQ POWER OF TH£ QOJ3PEJ.. 



gospel promises salvation to every be- 
'^afc liever. It is written : " Believe on the Lord 
Wsjfii Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 
Acts 16 : 31. To this promise the words of Jesus 
himself are equivalent : " Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." 
John 6 : 47. The gospel is declared by Paul to be 
" the power of God unto salvation to every one that 
believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." 
Rom. 1 : 16. If then the gospel is true, every be- 
liever is the subject of salvation. It may not be 
finished ; but it is begun, and its completion is prom- 
ised. 

The term "salvation" is of frequent occurrence 
and of comprehensive import, in the New Testament. 
It means deliverance from any evil or danger; but is 
usually, almost invariably, employed by Christ and 
the apostles to signify deliverance from sin.. In this 
sense, and only in this sense, does the gospel prom- 
ise salvation to believers. It is recorded: "Thou 
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his peo- 



100 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

pie from their sins." Matt. 1 : 21. This is the " great 
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by 
the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that 
heard him." Heb. 2 : 3. This salvation includes 
deliverance from the guilt, dominion, and effects of 
sin, and a restoration to the Divine favor and fellow- 
ship. The subject of this salvation cannot be igno- 
rant of it. He may not fully comprehend its nature 
or its advantages, and he may be in doubt as to its 
genuineness in his case ; but he knows that what he 
once loved he now hates, and the master that he 
once served he now resists. " He that believeth on 
the Son of God hath the witness in hirnself." 1 John 
5 : 10. This "witness" is not a new revelation that 
Jesus is the Son of God, or that the believer is, 
through him, accepted of God ; there is no need for 
any new revelation. It is the consciousness that the 
effects of faith — or, which is practically the same, of 
the gospel — are such as the Scriptures ascribe to it. 
Faith has its appropriate fruits; and the believer 
knows by experience that these fruits are developed 
in his own heart and life. We propose carefully to 
examine this evidence. 

The gospel promises to every believer the remission 
of SINS. 

That men are sinners has been already shown. 
That they need remission of sins, that is, deliver- 
ance from the punishment which they have incurred, 
is an obvious truth. All thoughtful men admit and 
feel, more or less sensibly, their need of it. Guilt is 
obnoxiousness to punishment ; and all who deprecate 
it desire forgiveness. Will God remit the sins of 



SAVING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 101 

men ? This question human wisdom cannot answer. 
He is the moral Kuler of the universe, governing his 
intelligent creatures by laws suited to their nature. 
These laws are enforced by a penalty ; for laws with- 
out a penalty are powerless advice. Men have trans- 
gressed these laws and have incurred this penalty. 
Is it consistent with the welfare of the intelligent 
universe, the claims of the law, and the honor of the 
Lawgiver, that the penalty shall be remitted? No 
creature, not even Gabriel, possesses the wisdom 
requisite for answering this question. If God were 
to forgive the sins of men indiscriminately, it would 
be equivalent to the abrogation of his law, and a 
universal license for the cunning to circumvent the 
simple, the strong to oppress the weak, the revenge- 
ful to murder the defenceless, and the sensual to give 
full indulgence to their appetites, passions, and lusts. 
Such a procedure would be alike ruinous to crea- 
tures and dishonoring to the Supreme Kuler. If he 
should arbitrarily pardon individuals or communi- 
ties, his course might be charged with partiality or 
caprice. Only God can decide whether it is proper 
to remit the sins of men; and if so, on what terms 
they shall be remitted. 

The gospel is a revelation of the truth that all 
believers are forgiven through Christ Jesus. "To 
him give all the prophets witness, that through his 
name whosoever believeth in him shall receive re- 
mission of sins." Acts 10 : 43. On this promise, the 
guilty, burdened, penitent sinner rests. Here he finds 
relief for his troubled conscience; " Being justified 
by faith," he has "peace with God through the Lord 



102 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

Jesus Christ." Rom. 5:1. While he looks on the 
cross, his burden is rolled into the tomb of Jesus, 
" who was delivered for our offences, and raised again 
for our justification." Rom. 4 : 25. 

The believer enjoys a quiet conscience and a sweet 
peace with God, not merely because the gospel as- 
sures him of forgiveness, but because he perceives 
that this blessing is conferred through a medium 
which secures all the demands of law, all the claims 
of justice, and the undiminished authority and un- 
tarnished glory of the Lawgiver. 

" Without the shedding of blood there is no re- 
mission." Deep in man's consciousness is lodged 
the conviction that blood must be shed — that atone- 
ment must be made — in order to remission. It has 
found expression in the bloody sacrifices and self- 
inflicted penances, which have distinguished the 
religions of the world. Were God to forgive sins 
without an atonement, he would shock the moral 
sense of his creatures, abolish the distinctions be- 
tween right and wrong, obedience and disobedience, 
and abdicate his throne. 

If sins are to be expiated, it must be by a sacri- 
fice commensurate with then demerit and the claims 
of Divine justice: "for it is not possible that the 
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." 
Heb. 10 : 3. Were God to remit sins in virtue of 
such an offering, he would proclaim to the world, in 
the clearest and most impressive manner, that sin is 
a trifle. An offence that may be effaced by the blood 
of a beast is a peccadillo, which need not greatly 
trouble its perpetrator. But sin is no trifle. It is 



SAVING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 103 

that abominable thing which God hates, and which 
he has threatened to punish with terrible but just 
severity. If sins then are expiated, it must be by 
some victim infinitely superior to bulls and goats. 
Such a sacrifice God provided. 

As among all creatures, on earth or in heaven, 
whether men, or angels, or principalities, or powers, 
or dominions, not one possessed half the worth or 
half the mercy demanded for the expiation of human 
guilt, God "sent his Son to be the propitiation for 
our sins." 1 John 4 : 10. He has many sons. An- 
gels, and especially saints, are his sons. But the Son 
whom the Father commissioned and sent into the 
world to be an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of men, 
is distinguished from all his other sons by peculiar 
and most significant epithets: Jesus is God's "own 
Son," "dear Son," "only begotten Son," "well-be- 
loved Son." He was " in the bosom of the Father," 
" the brightness of his glory, and the express image 
of his person," and upheld "all things by the word 
of his power." He was "higher than the heavens," 
and "thought it not robbery to be equal with God." 
The Father, in the fulness of time, " sent forth his 
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to re- 
deem them that were under the law." Gal. 4 : 4, 5. 
That Christ died for sinners is the great central fact 
of the gospel. Without this fact it is a mere system 
of Deism, destitute of power, vitality, or coherency. 
This vitalizing fact was* dimly revealed to the patri- 
archs ; typified by the Mosaic sacrifices ; predicted, 
with increasing clearness from age to age, by the 
prophets; disclosed by Christ to his disciples; in 



104 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

harmony with his agony in Gethsemane and his 
desertion on the cross; the theme of the apostolic 
ministry; and it will be the everlasting song of the 
redeemed in heaven. 

The believer contemplates with wonder and de- 
light this divine arrangement for the remission of 
sins. He is equally amazed at its wisdom and its 
grace, at its simplicity and its grandeur. It is wor- 
thy of God and adapted to man. In it he finds a 
sure foundation for hope, and an unfailing source of 
consolation. If God's Son bled and died and rose 
from the dead, and lives to intercede for transgress- 
ors, the believer surely may trust and be saved. His 
understanding is convinced and satisfied by the rea- 
soning of Paul: "He that spared not his own Son, 
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with 
him also freely give us all things. Who shall lay 
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God 
that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is 
Christ that died, } T ea rather, that is risen again, who 
is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh 
intercession for us." The believer is profoundly 
conscious of his guilt, the justice of his condemna- 
tion, and his utter unworthiness of the divine favor ; 
but in view of such a sacrifice and such a mediator, 
his conscience is quieted and his spirit finds rest. 
His sins are great, but they do not exceed the effi- 
cacy of the Redeemer's blood. Nay, if his crimes 
were a thousand times more* heinous than they are, 
he sees that they would still not transcend its cleans- 
ing power. By how much his sins are multiplied and 
his guilt is aggravated, by so much do the riches of 



SAVING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 105 

divine grace appear in their forgiveness. His grati- 
tude, his love, and his joy are proportionate to the 
greatness of the mercy displayed in his deliverance. 
Satan tempted him to believe that his sins were un- 
pardonable ; but now he faces his fierce accuser with 
the triumphant answer, "Jesus died." 

This peace of conscience, this joyful sense of 
pardon, this sweet assurance of reconciliation with 
God, are to the believer matters of experience. He 
is conscious that he believes in Christ, and that his 
faith has secured to him the relief which he desired, 
which neither reformation nor sorrow for sin could 
give, but which the gospel promises to all believers. 
A man might as easily pass from the darkness of 
night to the brightness of morning, in the full exer- 
cise of his senses, without observing the change, as 
to pass from a state of condemnation to a state of 
justification without a consciousness of his deliver- 
ance. He knows that his conscience is not terrified 
as it once was. He may have doubts and fears and 
difficulties still ; but he trusts, hopes, rejoices as once 
he did not. Of this experience no changes and no 
power can deprive him. If the world were on fire ; 
if the great white throne were set, and all nations 
gathered before it ; if the separation of the righteous 
and the wicked were commenced — he would yet have 
hope and joy in the atoning blood, the efficacious 
intercession, and the faithful promises of the God- 
man. 

The gospel promises to every believer freedom 

FEOM THE BONDAGE OF SIN. 

Every unbeliever is the slave of sin. " Whoso- 



106 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

ever committeth sin is the servant of sin." John 
8 : 34. He may not be, is not likely to be, in bond- 
age to every sin and every lust ; but sin in some form 
domineers over him. He may be enslaved by some 
vicious habit — as profanity, or drunkenness, or lewd- 
ness; or if he is free from open vice, some corrupt 
lust — as pride, envy, or covetousness — may tyrannize 
over him; or he may be the slave of some secret, 
cherished, and vile indulgence, which has grown with 
his growth and strengthened with his strength. He 
may be amiable, honest, and possessed of many ex- 
cellent qualities ; but there is some besetting sin by 
which he has been overcome and brought into bond- 
age. Most unrenewed men are conscious of their 
vassalage to sin. How often have they formed good 
resolutions only to break them ! How frequently 
have they struggled, violently but unsuccessfully, 
against their dominant lusts and their evil habits ! 
They have learned by experience that iniquity has 
its "bonds" as well as its "gall." Acts 8 : 23. Even 
those men who boast of their freedom from vice and 
of their morality, have their heart-sins. The Phari- 
see, who commended himself for his exemption from 
extortion, injustice, and adultery, was in bondage to 
pride. Luke 18:11, 14. Many a man "flattereth 
himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found 
to be hateful." Psa. 36 : 2. He boasts of the purity 
of his life ; but if his secret sins and loathsome lusts 
were brought to light, he would be covered with 
shame. Some men, no doubt, through the blinding 
influence of sin, are in a measure ignorant of their 
degrading bondage. We read of boasters, who prom- 



SAVING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 107 

ised others liberty, while they themselves were the 
servants of corruption. 2 Pet. 2 : 9. We have known 
drunkards who would resent the slightest imputation 
on their sobriety, and misers who fancied that they 
were liberal. Every man, however, who thoughtfully 
and candidly examines his life and heart, especially 
every one who by the Comforter is convinced of sin, 
feels, confesses, and deplores his spiritual slavery. 

Sin is a hard master. He makes golden prom- 
ises to his servants ; but rewards them with shame, 
remorse, and death. The devotees of pleasure, of 
sensual indulgence, and of earthly glory, learn, soon 
or late, that their hopes are deceitful, and that their 
bondage and sorrows are real. The enlightened, 
conscience-stricken sinner knows the bitterness and 
cruelty of his bondage. His bands are galling and 
oppressive. He sees that sin is wrong, degrading, 
ruinous— that it binds him fast in its chains of lust 
and habit, and loads him with intolerable burdens ; 
but how to overcome it is the difficulty. 

Man cannot, or rather will not, free himself from 
the dominion of sin. He may be convinced of its 
odious nature and ruinous tendency; but it does not 
the less tyrannize over him. He may modify his 
evil habits, restrain his corrupt lusts, and abate his 
violent passions ; but his love for sin is unquenched. 
His reformation is but the exchange of one vice for 
another, leaving sin in the undisturbed possession of 
the heart. Thousands have learned by bitter expe- 
rience their own weakness and the uncontrollable 
power of their sinful inclinations. The debauchee, 
the drunkard, the lover of pleasure, and the wor- 



108 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

shipper of mammon, stung by remorse, and terrified 
by the fearful end of their career in full view, haye 
hesitated, resolved, struggled, and rushed with accel- 
erated speed to then certain doom. " Can the Ethi- 
opian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then 
may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil." 
Jer. 13 : 23. Philosophy, with all her vaunting, can- 
not cure the love of sin, or break its iron bands. She 
may expatiate learnedly and eloquently on the excel- 
lence of virtue and on the value of conscious inno- 
cence and of high self-respect ; but lust and passion 
and habit cannot be controlled by fine words or beau- 
tiful tropes. Affliction may suspend the indulgence, 
but it cannot quench the evil desires of the unre- 
newed heart. Pharaoh, under chastisement, said : " I 
have sinned this time : the Lord is righteous, and I 
and my people are wicked. I will let Israel go ;" but 
when the fierce storm ceased, he "was hardened, nei- 
ther would he let the children of Israel go." Exod. 
9 : 27, 35. The history of Pharaoh has been often 
repeated, in every century, since it was recorded by 
Moses. Age, that corrects some vices, gives root, 
vitality, and fruitfulness to others. In short, no mere 
human devices, or agency, or influence, can extricate 
man from the dominion of his sins. The sword can 
free him from physical bondage; but no blade of 
steel can sever the bonds of iniquity. The procla- 
mation of an autocrat may free a nation of slaves ; 
but it cannot deliver a sinner from "the power of 
darkness." If the gospel cannot free him, there is 
no hope for him. 

Freedom from sin is one of the great privileges 



SAVING POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 109 

promised in the gospel -to believers. It is compre- 
hended in salvation. This is deliverance from the 
love and power as well as from the guilt and conse- 
quences of sin. It is not only a relative and legal, 
but a real and moral change. The promise of sal- 
vation then includes the promise of freedom from 
sin. This is not all. The blessing is specifically or 
substantially promised in many passages of Scrip- 
ture. Of the saints of Rome, Paul said — and what 
was true of them is true of all believers, in all time — 
"Now being made free from sin, and become servants 
to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the 
end everlasting life." Rom. 6 : 22. To the same 
effect speaks John: "Whatsoever is born of God 
overcometh the world : and this is the victory that 
overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 John 5 : 4. 
He that overcomes the world overcomes all that is 
in it — " the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, 
and the pride of life," (1 John 2 : 16,) and this great 
triumph is secured to faith. On this point we may 
adduce the testimony of Jesus : " Ye shall know the 
truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 
8:32. To "know the truth" is equivalent to be- 
lieving the gospel. Knowledge and faith are not 
identical; but as having reference to divine truth, 
they are inseparable. All who know or believe the 
truth are free — morally free — free in the highest and 
best sense of the term — free from the blindness, sla- 
very and degradation of sin. 

That the gospel is adapted to save all who be- 
lieve it, from the love and bondage of sin, must be 
apparent to those who intelligently and honestly 



110 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

examine ii Nowhere can we find such vivid and 
affecting representations of its heinousness, guilt, 
and danger, or such mighty motives to loathe and 
forsake it, as in the gospel. The cross of Christ 
reveals, with equal clearness, the infinite turpitude 
of sin, and the boundless mercy of God, displaying 
both the necessity of repentance and the possibility 
of forgiveness. With a knowledge of the facts, doc- 
trines, precepts, and promises of the gospel, we 
should infer, apart from all acquaintance with its 
actual influence, its fitness to purify the hearts and 
reform the lives of men. 

If the gospel does really free the believer from 
sin, it must be divine. It cannot be "a cunningly 
devised fable," an invention of artful men, or a 
device of human wisdom ; but it must have vitality 
and power, and consequently must be true. Im- 
posture cannot produce the fruits of righteousness. 
Satan is not divided against himself. Every tree 
bears fruit after its land. If the gospel delivers 
man from the slavery of sin, and refines, beautifies 
and ennobles him, it is good and "worthy of all 
acceptation." Whether it produces these fruits may 
be known, in a measure, by observation; but most 
certainly by experience. If the gospel is true, the 
believer is freed from sin. If he is freed from sin, 
he is conscious of his deliverance. He has in him- 
self the witness of the change. Every believer can 
testify from experience, the cleansing, emancipating 
power of the gospel. He is not free from tempta- 
tion — not free from the liability to sin — not free 
from the defilement of sin — not perfect — not what 



SAYING POWEE OF THE GOSPEL. Ill 

he wishes to be — not what he hopes to be — but he 
knows that he is not what he once was. Once he 
rolled sin, as a sweet morsel, under his tongue ; 
now he loathes it. Once he was the willing captive 
of sin; now it does not have dominion over him. 
Once his supreme desire was to please himself ; now 
it is to please God. He is "a new creature," and 
profoundly sensible of his renovation. His bodily 
and mental faculties and earthly relations are un- 
changed ; but in regard to spiritual matters, he has 
new views, new affections, new aims, new hopes, 
new joys, new sorrows, and new conflicts. The 
bands of his captivity are sundered. He has tri- 
umphed over his long dominant and debasing vices. 
He is rescued from the pride and shame which for- 
merly repelled him from acknowledging the truth of 
God's word and the supremacy of the Messiah. He 
may have been a drunkard, a libertine, a blasphemer, 
a swindler, or a brawler ; but now he is sober, chaste, 
devout, honest, and peaceful. In short, he is now 
"Christ's freeman." He enjoys a blood-bought and 
a heaven-bestowed liberty. 

' ' He is the freeman, whom the truth makes free ; 
And all are slaves beside." 

The believer is conscious not only of his free- 
dom from sin, but that he is indebted to the gospel 
for it. All his convictions of the evil of sin, all his 
good resolutions, all his sorrows, tears, and strug- 
gles could not avail for his emancipation. Like an 
insect caught in the spider's web, the more he 
labored to extricate himself, the more strongly was 
he bound. He could find no relief and no mitiga- 



112 THE SEAL OF HEAYEN. 

tion of his hard bondage, until lie came to Christ. 
Faith in the gospel gave him the victory. While 
meditating on the sufferings and death of Jesus, his 
heart was won, subdued, melted. The love of Christ 
appeared to be amazing, incomprehensible, too great ; 
and the humbled sinner felt unworthy of such favor. 
Then he resolved that, whatever might be his fate, 
he would, by God's help, sin no more. In view of 
the Cross, sin lost its control of him. The love of 
Christ became, in the liberated sinner, a constrain- 
ing power. He gratefully and joyously consecrated 
himself and his all to the Man of Calvary ; and if 
he had possessed a thousand lives, and a thousand 
worlds, he would have deemed them a poor offering 
to such a Benefactor. Love made the service of 
such a Master freedom, a delight, a rapture. He 
serves Christ of choice. He desires no better mas- 
ter — no other master — and if Christ did not de- 
mand his service, he would cheerfully render it. 
He heartily adopts the language of Watts : 

"All that I am, and all I have, 
Shall be for ever thine ; 
Whate'er my duty bids me give, 
My cheerful hands resign. 

' ' Yet, if I might make some reserve, 
And duty did not call, 
I love my God with zeal so great, 
That I would give him all. " 



'0^ 




CHAPTER XIII. 




THE CONFLICT. 



^HE young convert, in the freshness of his 
a^gi hope, in the fulness of his joy, and in the 
Wy^l confidence of his strength, is persuaded that 
his combats and troubles are all ended. He is 
egregiously .mistaken. The Scriptures teach that 
the Christian life is one of fierce and ceaseless con- 
flict. There is a law in the members of the believer, 
waning against the law of his mind, and bringing 
him into captivity to the law of sin. Rom. 7 : 23. 
Paul, writing to "the churches of Galatia," says: 
" The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit 
against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to 
the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye 
would." Gal. 5 : 17. This language, though ad- 
dressed to the Christians of Galatia, is applicable 
to believers of all countries- and of all times. There 
was no peculiarity in the condition or character of 
the Galatian disciples which subjected them to a 
conflict from which their brethren were free. In 
this war of the followers of Christ, there is no ex- 
emption, no substitute, and no discharge. Every 
soldier must stand at his post, bear his own respon- 



114 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

sibilities, conquer his own enemies and win his own 
crown. Let ns survey the contending forces. 

On one side are the lusts of the flesh. "The 
flesh lusteth against the spirit." Grace makes great 
changes in the believer. He is in some respects, 
"a new man;" but not in all. His appetites, pas- 
sions, and inclinations are unchanged. These the 
gospel does not propose to extirpate; but only to 
restrain, govern, or improve. All man's natural in- 
stincts as God created lnm are good, and are merely 
perverted by sin. Under the general name of lusts 
or desires, the apostle includes all these natural 
appetites. When properly governed and directed, 
they were innocent and useful ; but corrupted by 
sin, they are clamorous for indulgence, and lead to 
excess, crime, and ruin. "The flesh," or corrupt 
nature, which puts forth its power through the flesh, 
has desires antagonistic to those of the spirit. " Now 
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these : 
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, 
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, 
drunkenness, revellings, and such like." Gal. 5 :19- 
21. All these evils have their origin hi the appe- 
tites, passions, and inclinations of man, perverted 
and stimulated by a sinful nature called "the flesh." 
These natural propensities survive regeneration ; in- 
deed, are unchanged by it. The renewed man has 
appetites which may urge liim to gluttony and drunk- 
enness ; passions which may drive him into violence 
and licentiousness ; and inclinations which may be- 
guile him into dishonesty and lawless measures to 



THE CONFLICT. 115 

secure power or fame. Fleshly lusts, a formidable 
array, set themselves in resolute and active opposi- 
tion to the desires of the "new man." 

On the other side is the Spirit. The Holy Spirit 
sustains us in our warfare against the flesh. He 
dwells in the believer, inspiring him with holy de- 
sires. His influence is antagonistic to sin, of every 
kind and degree. His fruit is " love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem- 
perance." To produce this fruit, he renews and 
sanctifies the believer, imparting to him right views 
of sin, crucifying " the flesh with the affections and 
lusts," strengthening every good resolution, and for- 
tifying the weak points in the defences of the soul. 
The indwelling, ever-present, almighty and most 
gracious Spirit is to the believer the source of life, 
and strength, and courage, and perseverance. The 
Christian's purpose to triumph, by divine grace, over 
all the lusts of the flesh is fixed. He wages a war 
of extermination against sin. 

The result of the internal, spiritual conflict of 
believers is pointed out by Paul: "Ye cannot do 
the things that ye would." Let us not strain this 
passage beyond its proper meaning. The apostle 
did not design to teach that Christians cannot, in 
any sense or to any extent, do as they desire. This 
interpretation would strip them of all free agency 
and make them irresponsible. They would not be 
proper subjects of law, reproof, or punishment. They 
"cannot do" — that is, they cannot perfectly do, the 
things that they would. They would do good, but 
they are hindered in their efforts. When they would 



116 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

do good, evil is present with them. They would 
run in the way of God's commandments; but they 
are impeded in their progress by "the lusts of the 
flesh." 

Such is the Christian life as described by the pen 
of inspiration. It is a struggle, a trial, a warfare. 
The believer is not carried to heaven " on flowery 
beds of ease;" but must watch, and pray, and fight, 
and conquer, if he would win the crown. " To him 
that overcometh," says Jesus, "will I grant to sit 
with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and 
am set down with my Father in his throne." Rev. 
3:21. 

If the gospel be true, this warfare is common to 
believers. They all experience this conflict between 
the flesh and the Spirit, and the difficulty of per- 
fectly fulfilling their holy desires. As well might we 
suppose that a soldier could pass through a fierce 
battle, "with confused noise, and garments rolled 
in blood," without any knowledge of it, as that a 
believer should unconsciously be the subject of this 
life-long spiritual conflict. If a man is willing to 
obey God, he shall know whether this warfare is a 
fiction or a reality. 

On no point is the experience of the Christian 
more evident and satisfactory than on this. He is 
conscious that he desires to be perfect, as his Father 
in heaven is perfect, but that he constantly falls 
below the mark at which he aims. He is sensible 
of an unceasing antagonism between his conscience 
and his inclination, between the desires of his flesh 
and the promptings of the Spirit. He can adopt 



THE CONFLICT. 117 

the language of Paul : "The good that I would I do 
not : but the evil which I would not, that I do." Kom. 
7 : 19. This subject deserves a fuller illustration. 

The believer cannot pray as he icoald. He de- 
sires and aims to pray with concentration of thought, 
fervency, importunity, and faith. He knows that 
God abhors the sacrifice in which the heart is not 
found. Sometimes he enjoys freedom in prayer, 
draws nigh to God, aiid is sweetly impressed with 
his purity, goodness, and gloiy. But he cannot 
always thus pray. The lusts of the flesh sometimes 
hinder and chill his devotions. He would, but can- 
not pray. His mind is dark, his heart cold, his faith 
feeble, and his prayer a mere formality. His words 
may be well chosen and well expressed, and his pos- 
ture may be humble and devout; but his mind is 
disturbed by obtrusive thoughts, his heart is agita- 
ted by offensive lusts, and his sacrifice is defiled 
with sin. 

The believer cannot govern his tongue as lie would. 
He knows that the tongue is the glory of man ; and 
that, by his words he shall be justified, and by his 
words he shall be condemned. Matt. 12 : 37. Im- 
pressed with this truth, he would have his speech 
always with grace, seasoned with salt, that he may 
know how to answer every man. Col. 4 : 6. He 
purposes that his lips shall give utterance only to 
words true, kind, pure, and acceptable to God. But 
he finds the tongue to be " an unruly member." 
The lusts of the flesh struggle to employ it as an 
instrument for their own gratification. Anger would 
prompt it to utter abusive and bitter words. Covet- 



118 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

ousness would engage it in the deceitful words of 
traffic. Pride and vanity would use it in the lan- 
guage of self-praise. Envy would employ it for pur- 
poses of detraction. Especially, the love of pleasure 
would desecrate it to the purpose of "foolish talking 
and jesting, which are not convenient." The be- 
liever finds that it requires unceasing circumspec- 
tion and self-denial to resist these manifold impor- 
tunities of lust. 

" If any man offend not in word, the same is a 
perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." 
Jas. 3 : 2. But where is the man who does not 
offend in word? who utters no rash, or unkind, or 
idle, or extravagant word? The Christian would, 
but does not, perfectly govern his tongue. 

The believer cannot govern his temper as he looiild. 
He wishes to be imbued with that gentle, loving, 
noble, self-sacrificing spirit which was so beautifully 
displayed in the life of Jesus. He accepts as his 
rule of life, the precept of the Master: "Love your 
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them 
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully 
use you and persecute you." Matt. 5 : 44. He 
earnestly seeks to bar his heart against all undue 
resentment, and all discontent, and fretfulness, and 
envy, and bitterness, and selfishness. It is much 
easier to resolve to be of a placid temper than to 
fulfil the resolution. The believer finds that, in spite 
of his good resolutions and watchfulness, he is liable 
to be unduly excited and angry when he is insulted 
or injured. Under the impulse of wrath he is more 
inclined to curse than to bless his enemies, to pun- 



THE CONFLICT. 119 

ish than to pray for them. The "disciples, James 
and John, were good men; but when the Samari- 
tans rejected Jesus, they proposed to call down fire 
from heaven to consume them. Their proposal drew 
from then* meek and lowly Master the just rebuke : 
"Ye know not what manner. of spirit ye are of." 
Luke 9 : 54, 55. 

Once more, the believer cannot obey Christ as lie 
would. His will is to serve him with a perfect heart, 
performing every duty and in full measure. Noth- 
ing short of a perfect obedience could satisfy his 
desire; and yet, owing to fleshly lusts, which war 
against the soul, he cannot do as he would. In 
many things he offends. Jas. 3 : 2. His most holy 
sacrifices and his most faultless services can be 
acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. 
1:5. 

The believer has a conscious, painful, fearful con- 
flict within, which makes him cry out : " Oh wretch- 
ed man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the 
body of this death?" Eom. 7:24. The struggle 
is sore, but not of doubtful issue. " Ye are of God, 
little children, and have overcome them" — the ene- 
mies of Christ; "because greater is he that is in you 
than he that is in the world." 1 John 4 : 4. Aided 
and encouraged by the indwelling Spirit, the Chris- 
tian will maintain the fight, until all his enemies, 
within and without, shall be subdued ; and in this 
conflict he is furnished with constantly increasing 
evidence that the gospel is true, that his faith in it 
is genuine, and the Spirit that lusteth within liim is 
the Spirit of grace and of glory. 




CHAPTER XIY 



THE CONgOJLATION, 



jRHAT ^as a wonderful sight which Moses be- 
-^uL held in the land of Midian. Exod. 3 : 2-6. 
^$ It was an unconsumed bush wrapped in 
a fierce and mextinguishable flame. It was a mir- 
acle. The burning bush illustrates the case of 
the children of Israel, in their fierce Egyptian bon- 
dage. Its preservation in the flame was due to the 
presence of God. As the bush was not consumed 
by the fire, so God's favor and presence protect his 
people in the severest trials. The truth symbolized 
by the burning bush is clearly taught in Isa. 43 : 1, 2 : 
"Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, 
and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not: for I 
have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy 
name ; thou art mine. "When thou passest through 
the waters, I will be wdth thee; and through the 
rivers, they shall not overflow thee : when thou walk- 
est through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; nei- 
ther shall the flame kindle upon thee." This pre- 
serving, comforting presence of God, it is proposed 
now to consider. 

Salvation comprehends many inestimable bless- 
ings in this life; but exemption from sorrow is not 



THE CONSOLATION. 121 

included among them. "Many," said David, "are 
the afflictions of the righteous." Psa. 31 : 19. Under 
the new dispensation, their earthly condition is not 
always improved. Paul assured the primitive dis- 
ciples that they "must through much tribulation 
enter into the kingdom of God." Acts 14 : 22. The 
Master had before said to his servants: "In the 
world ye shall have tribulation." John 16 : 33. 
Every person then who enters the service of Christ 
with the expectation of escaping trials and sorrow is 
doomed to disappointment. 

Believers have afflictions in common with other 
men. They are flesh and blood, and subject to 
wants, infirmities, pains, and death. Their piety 
cannot shield them from these evils. They not only 
have afflictions hi common with others, but trials 
peculiar to themselves. Piety, far .from preserving 
them from all trouble, subjects them to many sore 
afflictions. "Yea," says the apostle, "all that will 
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 
2 Tim. 3 : 12. They are partakers of Christ's suffer- 
ings," 1 Pet. 4 : 13 — not of his expiatory, but of his 
exemplary sufferings — his sufferings in the cause of 
truth and righteousness. The genius of the age is 
opposed to persecution in its grosser forms. Chains, 
and stripes, and dungeons, and fires are not now 
frequently employed to restrain men from worship- 
ping Christ according to the dictates of their con- 
sciences and the requirements of his word; but in 
many cases, for these means of persecution have 
been substituted sneers, reproaches, social ostracism, 
and cold neglect. It is true now, as it was in the 



122 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

clays of Paul, that all who "live godly" — are ear- 
nestly, consistently, and aggressively pious — will in- 
cur opposition and opprobrium. 

The saints in all ages have been sufferers. Noah 
mourned over a perishing world ; Abraham was 
doomed to witness the destruction of Sodom, for 
whose deliverance he prayed ; Moses was forty years 
an exile in the land of Midian ; Samuel grieved over 
the capture of the ark of the Lord by the Philis- 
tines ; David lamented a succession of domestic 
calamities ; Daniel was cast into a den of fierce 
lions; John the Baptist was imprisoned and be- 
headed ; John the apostle was banished to the deso- 
late isle of Patmos; and Paul gives us a frightful 
catalogue of his sufferings. Jesus himself, the em- 
bodiment of truth, purity, and love — the incarnate 
God — was crucified ; and the servants are not better 
than their Master. If the world persecuted him, it 
will also persecute them. If it did this in the green 
tree, what will it do in the dry ? 

The afflictions of believers are sent of God. He 
cares for them. The hairs of their heads are all 
numbered, and not one falls to the ground without 
his notice. Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was divinely 
given. 2 Cor. 12 : 7. God afflicts his people not 
because he does not, but because he does love them. 
"As many as I love," says Jesus, "I rebuke and 
chasten." Eev. 3 : 19. The lack of chastisement is 
an alarming sign of God's displeasure: "If ye be 
without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then 
are ye bastards, and not sons." Heb. 12 : 8. 

As God loves his people, and could, but does 



THE CONSOLATION. 123 

not preserve them from affliction, there must be a 
necessity for it. There have been tyrants who have 
found pleasure in the sufferings, groans, and tears 
of then* unfortunate victims; but God is not a ty- 
rant. " He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the 
children of men." Lam. 3 : 33. The sufferings of 
believers are disciplinary. Their trials occupy a place 
in the economy of human redemption. They are to 
faith what fire is to gold — the means of testing its 
genuineness. "That the trial of your faith," says 
an apostle, " being much more precious than of gold 
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might 
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the 
appearing of Jesus Christ." 1 Pet. 1 : 7. What the 
rod is in domestic discipline, affliction is in the fam- 
ily of God. "Now no chastening for the present 
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless 
afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of right- 
eousness unto them which are exercised thereby." 
Heb. 12 : 11. Far as most Christians are from per- 
fection, they would be still farther, were it not for 
their manifold afflictions. 

By these their unholy lusts are mortified, their 
graces are exercised and strengthened, their knowl- 
edge of the power and preciousness of the divine 
promises is increased, they are weaned from the 
world and made willing to leave it, and are rendered 
meet for the heavenly inheritance. "For our light 
affliction," says Paul, "which is but for a moment, 
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." 2 Cor. 4 : 17. 

God does not promise his people exemption from 



121 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

sufferings and trials ; but he promises tliern what is 
far better, support and consolation under them. 
They may be called to pass through the waters, but 
they shall not be overflowed; to walk through the 
fire, but they shall not be burned. The Scriptures 
abound in great and comforting promises to Christ's 
afflicted people. " As thy days, so shall thy strength 
be." Deut. 33 : 25. This is an old and 'delightful 
promise, of which we have a new edition in 2 Cor. 
12 : 9 : " My grace is sufficient for thee : for my 
strength is made perfect in weakness." " The God 
of all comfort," says the apostle, "comforteth us in 
all our tribulation ; as the sufferings of Christ abound 
in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." 
2 Cor. 1 : 1, 5. Mark this language : " God .... com- 
forteth us in oil our tribulation" Whatever may be 
the afflictions of believers — whether they be relative 
or personal, bodily or mental, simple or complicated, 
transient or enduring, light or severe — God is their 
sufficient comforter. " Blessed are they that mourn : 
for they shall be comforted." There is a sorrow for 
which the gospel provides no relief — " the sorrow of 
the world worketh death" — but for all who "sorrow 
after a godly sort," who mourn an absent God, who 
feel the chastening of a heavenly Father's hand, there 
is consolation, "everlasting consolation." 2 Thess. 
2:16. 

Can God comfort his people in affliction? Some 
of their wounds are very deep ; can grace heal 
them ? Sometimes the saints are enveloped in dense 
gloom; can Christ disperse it? Ko common com- 
forter can brine relief to God's suffering, bereaved, 



THE CONSOLATION. 125 

heart-broken children. By no ordinary agent does 
God propose to comfort them. When Jesns was 
with his disciples on earth, he was their comforter. 
His presence, words, and works were to them an 
unfailing source of consolation. They were grieved 
when he told them that he must return to the Fa- 
ther. "Nevertheless," said he, "I tell you the truth; 
it is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go 
not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; 
but if I depart, I will send him unto you." John 
16 : 7. When Jesus ascended to heaven, he sent 
the Spirit to dwell in his disciples, to abide with 
them, and to comfort them. He is an all-pervading, 
gracious, infinite Comforter. The saints have no 
sorrows which he cannot soothe, no burdens which 
he cannot lighten, and no wounds which he cannot 
heal. He can turn the shadow of death into the 
brightness of the morning, and drops of grief into 
rivers of delight. He converted the dungeon at 
Philippi, to the scourged and manacled servants of 
Christ, into a royal palace, radiant with the divine 
glory; imparted to John on his sea-bound rock a 
glimpse of heaven, with its spotless hosts and its 
enraptured joys; and gave to Stephen, exposed to 
the rage of his pitiless foes, a view of " the glory of 
God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God," 
to receive his departing spirit. Christianity is a joy- 
ous religion. The primitive disciples, filled with the 
Holy Ghost, " did eat their meat with gladness .and 
singleness of heart, praising God." Acts 2 : 47. 

Now all who willingly obey God must know 
whether this doctrine is of him or of man, whether 



126 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

it is true or false. Whether the gospel has power 
to support and comfort believers under affliction, 
their experience can decide. They have been in 
trouble, have they found consolation in it? The 
world fails its devotees in their time of greatest 
need. In prosperity they rejoice: in adversity, all 
then sources of enjoyment are dry. There are sea- 
sons when the riches, splendors, titles, dignities, and 
hopes of earth can avail them nothing. They turn 
from them in utter despair and wretchedness, and 
lift their imploring eyes, it may be, to the despised 
and long neglected "throne of grace." When God 
says to the sinner: "Thou fool, this night thy soul 
shall be required of thee," what is all the world to 
him? How different is the experience of the be- 
liever ! The deeper his affliction, the more precious 
to him are the consolations of the gospel ; the darker 
the night of his sorrow, the more brightly do the 
divine promises shine ; the greater his peril, the 
more closely does he cling to his Almighty Protec- 
tor. The gospel was precious to him in prosperity ; 
but he values it a thousand times more highly in 
adversity. As in the storm, the voyager is taught 
to prize the skilful pilot, so in the tempest of afflic- 
tion the Christian learns the power, wisdom, and 
faithfulness of the great Deliverer. Never did the 
believer know so much of the preciousness of the 
gospel, the fulness of divine grace, and the sweet- 
ness of celestial hope, until he was tempest-tossed 
by suffering, bereavement, or temptation. If we 
were to search for the happiest Christian, we should 
not expect to find him in a palace, surrounded by 



THE CONSOLATION. 127 

earthly comforts, and basking in the sunshine of 
popular favor ; but in some cottage, in deep poverty, 
shut out from worldly enjoyments, and by repeated 
bereavements and trials brought to trust simply in 
the divine promises for support, and to look beyond 
the tomb for a satisfying treasure. 

We could easily find a thousand unexceptiona- 
ble witnesses to the consoling power of the gospel. 
Every sincere Christian can set to his seal that 
divine truth and grace can comfort the soul in its 
times of trial, suffering, and sorrow. Not long since, 
a minister, distinguished for his learning and elo- 
quence, who had enjoyed an unusual measure of 
secular and religious success, lost a lovely and almost 
idolized daughter, in the bloom of life, suddenly and 
under afflictive circumstances. He declared that the 
day on which she was buried was the happiest day 
of his life. When the late Dr. Bagby was lying 
momentarily expecting to be ferried across the river 
to the "better country," and using his failing breath 
for the comfort of his friends and the glory of his 
Redeemer, he said : " Oh, the hope of the gospel ! It 
is indeed 

" 'A sovereign balm for all our wounds, 
A cordial for our fears.' 

Yes, for all our fears Now all hope of life is 

gone, and I am happier, ten thousand times happier, 
than I ever was before in my life. My trust is in 
God." 

Surely these men knew, and all men may know 
by sweet experience, the truth, power, and precious- 
ness of the gospel. 



CHAPTEK XV. 

FREEDOM fROM THE FEAF} OF DEATH. 

w§B3^ T is not surprising that men should be 

t afraid to die. Death is a gloomy, powerful, 
inexorable enemy. It has been aptly styled 
' " the king of terrors, and the terror of kings." 
It may well be dreaded, for it is the fruit, the proof, 
and the punishment of sin. Had there been no sin, 
there had been no death ; for " sin entered into the 
world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon 
all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5 : 12. 
Death separates us from all that we cherish on 
earth — its golden treasures, its glittering honors, its 
sweet enjoyments, its valued friendships, and its in- 
spiring hopes. It strips the monarch of his robes 
and crown and sceptre, and lays him in the dust. In 
the tomb, if nowhere else, " the rich and the poor 
meet together." The Macedonian cynic could not 
distinguish the bones of King Philip from those of 
his slaves. To the eye of Nature, the grave is cov- 
ered with a dense and impenetrable gloom. Is it 
the place of a dreamless, interminable sleep? Whith- 
er leads this dark subterranean passage? Is the 



FREEDOM FROM FEAR OF DEATH. 129 

soul immortal? It may be. Its faculties, capaci- 
ties, and aspirations are prophetic of its immortality. 
If the Bible is true, the soul is certainly immortal. 
If it be immortal, what is its destiny? Is there a 
future judgment? a heaven? a hell? Momentous 
questions these ! well suited to impress, agitate, and 
terrify men in the contemplation of death. 

The fear of death is instinctive. It belongs to 
brutes as well as to men. All men in a natural state 
dread death. They may be so stupefied by sin, so 
infatuated by passion, or so blinded by error, as to 
look on death with indifference, or rush on it with 
recklessness ; but every man in a normal condition, 
and in his calm moments, shrinks from death with 
unutterable horror. There is nothing which he so 
much fears. Disease is terrible chiefly because it 
may terminate in death.. Storms, lightnings, floods, 
flames, and foes are dreaded mainly because they 
inflict sudden death. Who would tremble at enter- 
ing a battle, if he were assured that he would escape 
with his life ? "Who would be alarmed at a voyage, 
if he knew that his hfe would be preserved to its 
end ? Ah, it is death that invests danger with all its 
terrors. Secure a man's life, and he would rush on 
the drawn sword, and smile at the point of a dagger. 

After all, why should men be terrified at death? 
They are not afraid of sleep; and death is a long 
sleep. Does not God reign over the tomb ? Does 
not his empire embrace the future as well as the pres- 
ent world ? Is not his government equally wise and 
righteous on both sides of the grave ? It is not mere 
superstition that clothes death with gloom and dread. 

6* 



130 THE SEAL OE HEAVEN. 

Superstition could have no existence were man in a 
sound moral state; it is the perversion of his reli- 
gious instinct. It is conscience, misguided and 
blunted though it may be, that turns men into cow- 
ards at the approach of death. This stern monitor, 
by reminding them of duties neglected, mercies 
abused, privileges wasted, and God dishonored, 
causes them to dread a future and solemn reck- 
oning. 

It is certainly most desirable that men should be 
delivered from then bondage to the fear of death. 
To many it is the burden and curse of their exist- 
ence, embittering all their enjoyments and blighting 
all their hopes. To most it is a source of anxiety, 
trouble, and painful apprehension. To all, whether 
they so regard it or not, it is a subject of profound 
and enduring importance. Only by deliverance from 
this cruel vassalage can life be rendered safe, happy, 
profitable, and hopeful. 

How can men be rescued from this bondage? 
False views of honor have led them to peril their 
lives, not without the fear of death, but with the 
hope of escaping it. Men have committed suicide, 
not because they did not dread death, but to escape 
from woes which they deemed more terrible than 
death. Judas hanged himself to get rid of the in- 
tolerable pangs of remorse. A morbid sensitiveness, 
conscious disgrace, and the wreck of earthly fortune 
and hope, have driven multitudes to seek death who 
were nevertheless in bondage to the fear of it. In 
the rage of battle, men have fearlessly met death, 
because, in then excitement, they were oblivious of 



FREEDOM FROM FEAR OF DEATH. 131 

its consequences. A few infidels have died, not with 
calmness and hope, but with an insensibility or a 
frivolity altogether unsuitable to men who were con- 
fessedly making " a leap in the dark." Philosophy 
may descant eloquently on the loveliness of virtue 
and the mercy of God ; but she has no consolation 
and no hope for the dying. She inscribes on the 
portals of the cemetery : " Death is an eternal sleep ;" 
and she can furnish no evidence that the inscription 
is true. Superstition may invest the tomb with ter- 
rors, but she can shed no light on the region beyond 
it. At this point all false religions fail. They can- 
not rescue their devotees from the fear of death. 
They cannot furnish that support in death, and that 
assurance of bliss beyond the tomb, which are indis- 
pensable to quiet the fears of a departing soul. A 
calm, hopeful, triumphant anticipation of death is 
limited to the believers in divine revelation. 

The gospel proposes to free believers from the 
fear of death. "Forasmuch then," says the author 
of the epistle to the Hebrews, " as the children are 
partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus also himself like- 
wise took part of the same ; that through death he 
might destroy him that had the power of death, that 
is, the devil ; and deliver them who through fear of 
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 
Chap. 2 : 14, 15. The devil, the god of this world, 
through the fear of death, keeps his subjects in cruel 
bondage. This fear lies at the foundation of all 
false religion. It has given birth to the unprofita- 
ble, burdensome, and oppressive rites and forms of 
worship by which the world, unvisited by the light 



132 THE SEAL.OF HEAVEN. 

of the gospel, lias been kept in thraldom. To de- 
liver them from this bondage, the Son of God became 
incarnate, and died on the cross. In virtue of this 
sacrifice, believers are freed from guilt, their con- 
sciences are quieted, succor is secured for them in 
time of need, a world of unending felicity and glory 
is unveiled to them, and they are assured of a por- 
tion there. Through the death and intercession of 
Christ they are delivered from the fear of death. 

Why should the Christian fear to die ? To him 
it is gain ; the end of sorrows, conflicts, and pains ; 
the consummation of hope ; the dawn of an endless 
day ; the triumphant entrance into heaven ; the be- 
ginning of the true life — a life of purity, blessedness, 
and glory. If he believes these things, he may well 
smile at death. But fear sometimes triumphs over 
reason and faith. Many persons, who put no confi- 
dence in apparitions, are terrified in passing a grave- 
yard at night. 

Does the gospel actually deliver those who em- 
brace it from the fear of death? It does. When 
Simeon had seen " the Lord's Christ," he exclaimed : 
"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." 
Luke 2 : 29. He was probably an old man, waiting 
for his departure. It had been revealed to him that 
he should not die until he had seen the Messiah. 
He came by the Spirit into the temple, and taking 
the child Jesus in his arms, the last hinderance to 
his departure was removed, and he was ready to go 
"in peace." Paul, the prisoner in Home, had a con- 
flict, but not with the fear of death. "I am," said 
he " in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, 



FREEDOM FROM FEAR OF DEATH. 133 

and to be with Christ ; which is far better : neverthe- 
less to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." 
Phil. 1 : 23, 24. Death had no terror for the apos- 
tle ; he desired to die ; and so earnest was the desire, 
that even the prospect of usefulness could not ex- 
tinguish it, but could only neutralize it. He wished 
to die; he was merely willing to live. He could 
already adopt the triumphant language : " O death, 
where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? 
The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is 
the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 
15:55, 56. 

Freedom from the fear of death is then one of 
the immunities of believers. Any man who is will- 
ing to do God's will, shall know whether this doctrine 
is true or false. It is a question of fact which his 
experience must answer. He was not always free 
from the fear of death. Once he could not think of 
it without dread and horror. Has faith in Christ 
delivered him from this bondage ? He may not be, 
at all times, perfectly free from it, but death appears 
to him in a very different light from that in which he 
once viewed it. It is to him no longer " the king of 
terrors," but the angel of mercy. He contemplates 
it with calmness and hope, and sometimes, in his 
better moments, when his faith is strong and his 
affections are warm, with joy and triumph. He 
would not live alway. He looks to death as the door 
through which he shall escape from the manifold ills 
of life. He may not, at present, possess that full 
assurance of hope which would enable him to meet 



134 



THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 



death triumphantly ; but he trusts that God, who in 
the past has been his guide and supporter, will afford 
him " dying grace for the dying hour." He can say 
with Paul, the aged prisoner : " I know whom I have 
believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep 
that which I have committed unto him against that 
day." 2 Tim. 1 : 12. He can* adopt the language of 
the psalmist in a fuller, higher, sweeter sense than 
that in which he used it: "Yea, though I walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear 
no evil ; for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff 
they comfort me." Psa. 23 : 4. 





CHAPTER XYI. 

DIVERSITY yVND UNITY OF CHFJIJSTIAN 
EXPERIENCE 

IYERSITY is one of the great laws of na- 
ture. In all the universe there are not two 
things precisely alike. No two animals, or 
plants, or pebbles, or even grains of sand, are iden- 
tical. In large objects the differences are obvious ; 
and in the most minute, the diversity, though not 
discernible by the unassisted eye, is clearly disclosed 
under the magnifying power of the microscope. 
Diversity is a law of humanity. No two persons are 
exactly alike. Men differ physically, intellectually, 
and morally. These differences are not merely inci- 
dental, but constitutional and invincible. The child 
is the father of the man. Education may expand 
his faculties, improve his taste, direct his pursuits, 
and modify his character ; but it cannot efface his 
inherent peculiarities. In spite of culture and chan- 
ging circumstances, he will retain his individuality — 
will be himself, and nobody else — will stand alone in 
the universe, with none to represent him, and none 
precisely resembling him. 

In view of the diversity in nature, and especially 



136 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

in human nature, we should expect, a priori, differ- 
ences in the experiences of Christians. Accordingly 
we find that they are almost infinitely diversified. 
Paul's experience, which is recorded in several places 
in the Acts of the Apostles, differs widely from that 
of every other Christian. No two believers have 
ever had, or ever can have, exactly the same experi- 
ence. They have not travelled precisely the same 
path. Truth and grace, acting on their diverse 
minds, dispositions, and habits, produce, in some 
respects, widely differing results. 

Various causes tend to diversify the experiences 
of believers. They are modified by natural temper- 
ament, health, education, habits, associations, age, 
and circumstances. If we know a man intimately, 
we may conjecture what shape his religious experi- 
ence will assume. If he is impulsive, earnest, de- 
termined, hopeful, these traits will be developed in 
his experience. If he is phlegmatic, slow, cautious, 
timid, incredulous, his experience will partake of 
these qualities. Whether his religious views be 
sound or unsound, clear or confused, they will greatly 
affect his experience. 

We will briefly notice some of the diversities in 
Christian experience. Some persons are brought 
to exercise faith in Christ after long-continued in- 
quiry, doubt, perplexity, hesitation, anxiety, and 
trouble. This suspense and conflict, in some cases, 
extend through months or years, and even from 
j~outh to old age. When such persons profess faith, 
it is usually with fear and uncertainty. Other per- 
sons are quickly converted. Light flashes on their 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 137 

minds, their consciences are quickened, their fears 
are aroused, they despair of salvation by their own 
works, and without questioning or hesitating they 
flee to Christ for refuge. Most of the conversions 
recorded in the New Testament were hasty. Zacche- 
us the publican, Saul the Cilician, and the Jews on 
the day of Pentecost, were all speedily converted. 
They heard the gospel, believed it, and made haste 
to obey it. Some persons embrace the Redeemer 
with intense emotions. Their convictions are deep, 
their sorrow is sharp, their submission is unreserved, 
and then- joy is full. With others, conversion is more 
a matter of thought and of principle than of feeling. 
Their understandings are convinced, their affections 
are won, and their wills are conquered ; but neither 
their sorrow nor their joy is intense. Calmly, deci- 
dedly, and firmly they enter on the service of Christ ; 
not without emotion, but with a purpose not de- 
pendent on it. Some Christians have an unwavering 
confidence in Jesus. Their piety is distinguished by 
an unruffled serenity. Others are all their lifetime 
harassed with doubts and fears. Their piety is timid, 
unaggressive, and sombre. Some believers have a 
variable experience. This, indeed, is the usual type 
of piety. It has alternations of sunshine and clouds, 
of hopes and fears, of joys and sorrows, of triumphs 
and defeats, of songs and sighings, of praises and 
lamentations. 

It is not surprising that these diversities exist in 
the experiences of Christians. It would be strange 
if they did not exist. There is uniformity in the 
impressions made by a mould or a stamp on metals; 



138 THE SEAL OE HEAVEN. 

but mind is not metal. It is a living, conscious, self- 
acting tiling, susceptible indeed of deep and lasting 
impressions ; but all these impressions are modified 
by its instincts, training, and will. 

Unity not less than diversity is a law of nature. 
It lies at the foundation of all true science. All min- 
erals, however different in form, size, and qualities, 
resemble one another in certain respects ; and this 
resemblance is the basis of their classification. Gold, 
silver, and iron, granite, marble, and precious stones, 
however diversified in color, texture, and properties, 
are all minerals, and belong to a common class in 
natural history. What has been said of minerals is 
equally applicable to plants and animals. However 
widely the individuals may differ, there is a general 
likeness by which they are easily ranged into genera, 
species, and families. This unity strikingly prevails 
in the human races. Though a man does not ex- 
actly resemble any other man, he bears a much 
stronger resemblance to human than to any other 
class of beings; and the likeness extends to bodily, 
mental, and moral qualities. We should then, fol- 
lowing the law of analogy, expect to find a unity as 
well as a diversity in the experiences of Christians. 
Nor are we disappointed in the expectation. They 
are all essentially the same. However widely they 
may differ in circumstances, vividness, and the order 
of emotions, they are all distinguishable by certain 
unmistakable traits ; and these we propose to notice. 

If a company of Christians should meet at the 
Cape of Good Hope from the four quarters of the 
globe, and from all the islands of the sea, and could 



CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 139 

all speak the same language, they would find, on a 
comparison of their experiences, a wonderful har- 
mony between them. They might, and probably 
would, differ widely in their views of Scripture doc- 
trine, church organization, and discipline, and many 
other points pertaining to the extension of the king- 
dom of Christ; but in regard to the adaptation of 
the gospel to their spiritual wants, and to its influ- 
ence and that of the Holy Spirit on their own hearts, 
there would be a surprising agreement. In all, the 
language of the heart would be the same. Calvinists 
and Arminians, Churchmen and Dissenters, Baptists 
and Pedobaptists, men of all degrees of mental cul- 
ture and all grades in social life, and of all climes, 
tongues, and complexions, would see eye to eye, and 
speak the same things. Suppose one were selected 
to give utterance to his experience ; he would say : 

" I Was once careless and hardened in sin. God 
was not in all my thoughts. I sought my happiness 
from the world, and put far from me all concern for 
my salvation. If at any time my conscience was 
troubled by a sense of guilt, I quieted it by a prom- 
ise of future repentance. But God had mercy on 
me. His providence, truth, and grace brought me 
to a consideration of my sinful, guilty, and perilous 
condition. Light dawned on my mind. I saw that 
my heart was corrupt; that I was estranged from 
God ; that I had never rendered to him the slightest 
intelligent voluntary homage ; that I was incapaci- 
tated for communion with him ; and that I was con- 
demned by his righteous law. From all that I could 
do or suffer or promise, I could find no relief or de- 



140 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

rive no hope. As light increased, I saw more of the 
turpitude of sin and of the justice of my condemna- 
tion, and my feelings were intensified. I grieved that 
I had sinned against a Being so pure and good and 
glorious as God is. My heart was broken, melted, 
humbled, subdued ; and yet I was not so penitent as 
I desired to be. The burden of my guilt and the 
bondage of my sins were intolerable. Despairing of 
all help from myself or from creatures, I trusted in 
Christ for salvation. I believed his word, relied on 
his promises, and hoped in his mercy and in his mer- 
its. Faith wrought a great change in my feelings. 
My fears were turned into love, my sorrows into joy, 
my tears into smiles, and my sighing into songs. The 
greatness of my past guilt and danger increased my 
subsequent gratitude and gladness. Christ was en- 
throned in my heart, and I desired that all the world 
might love him. Sin appeared more odiou^ in my 
sight than it had ever previously done ; and the yoke 
of Christ seemed easy and light. Never before had 
I known true peace or freedom. Then I began a 
new life, and entered into a new world. To the ser- 
vice of Christ I consecrated my powers, my all, for 
time and for eternity. Since that bright and joyous 
day I have had many conflicts, some doubts of the 
genuineness of my faith, and much cause for con- 
fession, humiliation, and sorrow; but have had no 
desire to return to the bondage of sin, nor have I 
seen the hour when I would have exchanged my 
hope for the world." 

Every member of the convocation would prompt- 
ly and heartily respond : " This is my experience. I 



CHKISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 141 

might add much as to its time, circumstances, and 
peculiarities ; but substantially it has been recited." 
Haying a common experience, they would feel that 
they are one in Christ. 

If one of the number were called on to offer 
prayer, all could unite in the service. They would 
need no liturgy to guide them in their worship. 
Their confessions, thanksgivings, petitions, and vows 
would all be essentially the same. Prayer is the 
language oi the pious heart; and that language 
every pious heart can adopt. There never was a 
true prayer offered to which every child of God 
could not subjoin his hearty, Amen. However 
greatly they may differ in the pulpit or on the plat- 
form, Christians are united at the throne of grace. 

' ' The saints in prayer appear as one, 
In word and deed and mind ; 
While with the Father and the Son 
Sweet fellowship they find." 

The assembly at the Cape might close their in- 
terview by uniting in singing the hymn of the pious 
Watts: 

"When God revealed his gracious name, 
And changed my mournful state, 
My rapture seemed a pleasing dream, 
The grace appeared so great. 

' ' The world beheld the glorious change, 
And did thy hand confess ; 
My tongue broke out in unknown strains, 
And sung surprising grace. 

" ' Great is the work,' my neighbors cried, 
And owned thy power divine : 
' Great is the work, ' my heart replied, 
' And be the glory thine.' " 



CN^QyX^O 




CHAPTER XYII. 

WJTNEggEg OF THE £ELF~EVIDENCINQ 
POWER OF THE QOgPEE. 

/ ) X T lias been maintained, in the preceding 
^\ML chapters, that the docile and obedient mind 
^^d| discerns in the gospel satisfactory proofs of 
its divinity. If this position is trne, it fol- 
lows that every believer knows, from his own expe- 
rience, the truth and saving power of the gospel. 
God " hath shined in his heart, to give the light of 
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of 
Jesns Christ," and, having received the divine testi- 
mony, he " hath set to his seal that God is -true." 
Every believer is a living, competent witness of the 
truth and efficacy of the gospel. It were easy to 
furnish ten thousand witnesses of its divinity. It is 
proposed to present the testimony of a few believers 
who have been distinguished for their genius, learn- 
ing, piety, deep experience, labors or usefulness, to 
the self-evidencing power of Christianity. 

Martin Luther. "I had the greatest longing 
to understand rightly the epistle of Paul to the 
Romans, but was always stopped by the word ' right- 
eousness/ in the first chapter and nineteenth verse, 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL 143 

where Paul says, 'the righteousness of God is re- 
vealed in the gospel.' I felt very angry at the term 
' righteousness of God ;' for, after the manner of all 
the teachers, I was taught to understand it, in a 
philosophic sense, of that righteousness by which 
God is just and punisheth the guilty. Though I 
had lived without reproach, I felt myself a great 
sinner before God, and was of a very quick con- 
science, and had not confidence in a reconciliation 
with God to be produced by any work of satisfac- 
tion or merit of my own. For this cause I had in 
me no love of a righteous and angry God, but 
secretly hated him, and thought within myself, 'Is 
it not enough that God hath condemned us to ever- 
lasting death by Adam's sin, and that we must suffer 
so much trouble and misery in this life ? Over and 
above the terror and threatening of the law, must 
he needs increase, by the gospel, our misery and 
anguish ; and, by the preaching of the same, thun- 
der against us his justice and fierce wrath?' My 
confused conscience ofttimes did cast me into fits of 
anger, and I sought day and night to make out the 
meaning of Paul ; and, at last, I came to apprehend 
it thus: Through the gospel is revealed the right- 
eousness which availeth with God, a righteousness 
by which God, in his mercy and compassion, justi- 
fieth us, as it is written, 'The just shall live by 
faith.' Straightway I felt as if I were born anew; 
it was as if I had found the door of Paradise thrown 
wide open. Now I saw the Scriptures in altogether 
a new light, ran through their whole contents, as 
far as my memory would serve, and compared them, 



14A THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

and found the righteousness was the more surely 
that by which he makes us righteous, everything 
agreed thereunto so well .... The expression 'the 
righteousness of God,' which I so much hated be- 
fore, became* now dear and precious, my darling 
and my most comforting word ; and that passage of 
Paul was to me tho true door of Paradise." 

Bishop Burnet. " Nothing so opens our facul- 
ties, and composes and directs the whole man, as 
an inward sense of God; of his authority over us, 
of the laws he has set us ; of his eye ever upon us ; 
of his hearing our prayers, assisting our endeavors, 
watching over all our concerns ; of his being to 
judge, and reward or punish us in another state 
according to what Ave have done in this. Nothing 
will give us such a detestation of sin, and such a 
sense of the goodness of God, and of our obligations 
to holiness, as a right understanding and firm belief 
of the Christian religion. . . . 

"By religion, I mean such a sense of divine 
truth as enters into a man, and becomes the spring 
of a new nature within him ; reforming his thoughts 
and designs, purifying his heart, sanctifying and 
governing his whole deportment, his words as well 
as actions ; convincing him that it is not enough not 
to be scandalously vicious, or to be innocent in his 
conversation, but that he must be entirely, uniform- 
ly, and constantly pure and virtuous, animated with 
zeal to be still better and better, more eminently 
good and exemplary. 

" This true religion, which is the perfection of 
human nature, and the joy and delight of every one 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 145 

that feels it active and strong within him — of this 
I write with a greater concern and emotion, because 
I have felt it to be the true, and indeed, the only 
joy which runs through a man's heart and life. It 
is this which has been for many years my greatest 
support. I rejoice daily in it, I feel from it the 
earnest of the supreme joy which I want and long 
for ; and I am sure there is nothing else which can 
afford any true and complete happiness." 

Louis, Duke of Orleans. " I know by experi- 
ence that sublunary grandeur and sublunary pleas- 
ure are delusive and vain, and are always infinitely 
below the conceptions we form of them ; but, on the 
contrary, such happiness, and such complacency, 
may be found in devotion and piety, as the sensual 
mind has no idea of." 

A Young Woman, described by John Newton, in 
Cardiphonia : " Permit me, my lord, to relate, upon 
this occasion, some things which exceedingly struck 
me, in the conversation I had with a young woman 
whom I visited in her last illness, about two years 
ago. She was a sober, prudent person, of plain 
sense ; she could read the Bible, but had read little 
besides. Her knowledge of the world was nearly 
confined to the parish, for I suppose she was sel- 
dom, if ever, twelve miles from home. She had 
known the gospel about seven years before the Lord 
visited her with a lingering consumption, which at 
length removed her to a better world. A few days 
previous to her death, in prayer by her bedside, 1 
thanked the Lord that he gave her now to see 
that she had not followed cunningly devised fables. 

»j.t,il <if Heaven. / 



146 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

When I had finished, she repeated that expression : 
'No,' said she, 'not cunningly devised fables; these 
are realities indeed; I feel their truth; I feel their 
comfort. Oh, tell rny friends, tell my acquaintance, 
tell inquiring souls, tell all the danghters of Jerusa- 
lem what Jesus has done for my soul. Tell them 
that now, in the time of need, I find him my Be- 
loved and my Friend ; and as such I commend him 
to them. ... I feel that my hope is fixed upon the 
Kock of Ages: I know in whom I have believed.' " 

John Bunyan. "I thought it impossible that 
ever I should attain to so much godliness of heart, 
as to thank God that he had made me a man. Man 
indeed is the most noble by creation of all creatures 
in the visible world ; but by sin he has made him- 
self the most ignoble. The beasts, birds, fishes, etc., 
I blessed then- condition, for they had not a sinful 
nature; they were not obnoxious to the wrath of 
God; they were not to go to hell-fire after death; 
I could therefore have rejoiced, had my condition 
been as any of theirs. 

"In this condition I went a great while; but 
when the comforting time was come, I heard one 
preach a sermon on these words in the Song : ' Be- 
hold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair.' 
But at that time he made these two words, my love, 
his chief and subject matter, from which, after he 
had a little opened the text, he observed there sev- 
eral conclusions, etc. But I got nothing from what 
he said at present ; only when he came to the appli- 
cation of the fourth particular, this was the word he 
said: 'If it be so, that the saved soul is Christ's 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 147 

love, when under temptation and destruction ; then, 
poor tempted soul, when thou art assaulted and 
afflicted with temptations, and the hidings of his 
face, jet think on these two words, my love, still.' 

"So as I was going home, these words came 
again into my thoughts: and I well remember, as 
they came in, I said thus in my heart, ' What shall I 
get by thinking on these two words ?' This thought 
had no sooner passed through my heart, but these 
words began thus to kindle in my spirit, ' Thou art 
my love, thou art my dove,' twenty times together; 
and still as they ran in my mind, they waxed stron- 
ger and warmer, and began to make me look up; 
but being as yet between hope and fear, I still re- 
plied in my heart, 'But is it true? but is it true?' 
at which that sentence fell upon me, 'He wist not 
that it was true which was done by the angels.' 

" Then I began to give place to the word, which 
with power did over and over make this joyful sound 
within my soul, 'Thou art my love, thou art my 
love, and nothing shall separate thee from thy love.' 
And with that my heart was filled full of comfort 
and hope, and now I could believe that my sins 
would be forgiven me ; yea, I was now so taken 
with the love and mercy of God, that I remember, 
I could not tell how to contain till I got home. I 
thought I could have spoken of his love, and have 
told of his mercy to me, even to the very crows that 
sat on the ploughed lands before me, had they been 
capable to have understood me; wherefore I said 
in my soul, with much gladness, ' Well, I would I had 
a pen and ink here, I would write this down before 



148 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

I go any farther; for surely I will not forget this 
forty years hence.' " 

After this, Bunyan fell into sore temptations, 
which continued long, and from which he was at 
length joyfully delivered. He says: "Now did my 
chains fall off from my legs indeed; I was loosed 
from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also 
fled away; so that from that time those dreadful 
scriptures of God left off to trouble me; now went 
I also home rejoicing, for the grace and love of 
God; so when I came home, I looked to see if I 
could find that sentence, Thy righteousness is in 
heaven, but could not find such a saying; wherefore 
my heart began to sink again, only that was brought 
to my remembrance, ' He is made unto us of God, 
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemp- 
tion.' By this word I saw the other sentence true. 

"For by this Scripture, I saw that the man 
Christ Jesus, as he is distinct from us touching his 
bodily presence, so he is our righteousness and 
sanctification before God. Here therefore I lived 
for some time very sweetly at peace with God 
through Christ. Oh, methought, Christ! Christ! 
there was nothing but Christ that was before my 
eyes ; I was not now only for looking upon this and 
the other benefits of Christ apart, as of his blood, 
burial, or his resurrection, but considering him as 
a whole Christ, as he in whom all these, and all his 
other virtues, relations, offices, and operations met 
together, and that he sat on the right hand of God 
in heaven. 

" 'T was glorious to me to see his exaltation, and 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 149 

the worth and prevalency of all his benefits, and 
that because now I could look from myself to him, 
and would reckon that all those graces of God that 
now w***e green on me, w r ere yet but like those 
cracked groats and four-pence half -pennies that rich 
men carry in their purses, when their gold is in their 
trunks at home. Oh! I saw my gold w r as in my 
trunk at home — in Christ my Lord and Saviour. 
Now Christ was all; all my righteousness, all my 
sanctification, and all my redemption." 

Madame Guyox. " I told this good man that I 
did not know what he had done to me; that my 
heart was quite changed; that God was there, for 
from that moment he had given me an experience 
of his presence in my soul — not merely as an object 
intellectually perceived by any application of mind, 
but as a thing really possessed after the sweetest 
manner. I experienced those words in the Canti- 
cles : ' Thy name is as precious ointment poured 
forth; therefore do the virgins love thee.' For I 
felt in my soul an unction, which, as a salutary per- 
fume, healed in a moment all my wounds. I slept 
not all that night, because thy love, O my God! 
flowed in me like delicious oil, and burned as a fire 
which was going to destroy all that was left of self 
in an instant. I was all on a sudden so altered, 
that I was hardly to be known, either by myself or 
others. I found no more those troublesome faults, 
or that reluctance to duty, which formerly charac- 
terized me. They had disappeared, as being con- 
sumed like chaff in a great fire. 

"Nothing was more easy to me now than to 



150 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

practise prayer. Hours passed away like moments, 
while I could hardly do anything else but pray. 
The fervency of my love allowed me no intermis- 
sion. It was a prayer of rejoicing and oflfrposses- 
sion, wherein the taste of God was so great, so 
pure, unblended and uninterrupted, that it drew and 
absorbed the powers of the soul into a profound 
recollection, a state of confiding and affectionate rest 
in God, existing without intellectual effort. For I 
had now no sight but of Jesus Christ alone. All 
else w T as excluded, in order to love with greater 
purity and energy, without any motives or reasons 
for loving which were of a selfish nature." 

In a poem translated by Cowper, she thus ex- 
pressed her religious feelings : 

" All are indebted much to thee, 

But I far more than all ; 
From many a deadly snare set free, 

And raised from many a fall. 
Overwhelm me from above 
Daily with thy boundless love. 

" What bonds of gratitude I feel, 

No language can declare ; 
Beneath the oppressive weight I reel, 

'T is more than I can bear ; 
When shall I that blessing prove, 
To return thee love for love. 

' ' Oh blessedness, all bliss above, 

When thy pure fires prevail ! 
Love only teaches what is love ; 

All other lessons fail ; 
We learn its name, but not its powers, 
Experience only makes it ours." 

Jonathan Edwards. "The first instance I re- 
member of that sort of inward, sweet delight in 



POWEE OF THE GOSPEL. 151 

God and divine things that I have lived much in 
since, was on reading those words : ' Now unto the 
King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, 
be honor and 'glory for ever and ever. Amen.' 1 Tim. 
1 : 17. As I read the words, there came into my 
soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense 
of the glory of the Divine Being ; a new sense, quite 
different from anything I ever experienced before. 
Never any words of Scripture seemed to me as these 
words did. I thought with myself, how excellent a 
Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I 
might enjoy that God, and be rapt up to him in 
heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in him for 
ever! I kept saying, and as it were singing over 
these words of Scripture to niyself ; and went to pray 
to God that I might enjoy him, and prayed in a man- 
ner quite different from what I used to do — with a new 
sort of affection. But it never came into my thought 
that there was anything spiritual or of a saving na- 
ture in this. 

"From about that time I began to have a new 
kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the 
work of redemption, and the glorious way of salva- 
tion by him. An inward, sweet sense of these tilings 
at times came into my heart, and my soul was led 
away in pleasant views and contemplations of them : 
and my mind was greatly engaged to spend my time 
in reading and meditating on Christ, on the beauty 
and excellency of his power, and the lovely way of 
salvation by free grace in hini. I found no books so 
delightful to me as those that treated of these sub- 
jects. These words used to be abundantly with me : 



152 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.' 
Cant. 2:1. The words seemed to me sweetly to 
represent the loveliness and beauty of Jesus Christ. 
The whole book of Canticles used to be pleasant to 
me, and I used to be much in reading it about that 
time ; and found from time to time an inward sweet- 
ness, that would carry me away in my contempla- 
tions. This I know not how to express otherwise 
than by a calm, sweet abstraction of soul from all 
the concerns of this world ; and sometimes a kind of 
vision, or fixed ideas and imaginations, of being 
alone in the mountains, or some solitary wilder- 
ness, far from all mankind, sweetly conversing with 
Christ, and wrapt and swallowed up in God. The 
sense I had of divine things would often of a sud- 
den kindle up, as it were, a sweet burning in my 
heart — an ardor of soul that I know not how to ex- 
press. 

" I remember the thoughts I used then to have 
of holiness, and said sometimes to myself: 'I do 
certainly know that I love holiness such as the gos- 
pel prescribes.' It appeared to me that there was 
nothing in it but what was ravishingly lovely; the 
highest beauty and amiableness — a divine beauty, 
far purer than anything here upon earth, and that 
everything else was like mire and defilement in com- 
parison of it. 

"Holiness, as I then wrote down some of my 
contemplations on it, appeared to me to be of a 
sweet, pleasant, charming, serene, calm nature, which 
brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, peace- 
fulness, and ravishment to the soul. In other words, 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 153 

that it made the soul like a field or garden of God, 
with all mariner of pleasant flowers; all pleasant, 
delightful, and undisturbed; enjoying a sweet calm 
and the gently vivifying beams of the sun. The soul 
of a true Christian, as I then wrote my meditations, 
appeared like such a little white flower as we see in 
the spring of the year ; low and humble on the ground, 
opening its bosom to receive the pleasant beams of 
the sun's glory ; rejoicing, as it were, in a calm rap- 
ture; diffusing around a sweet fragrancy; standing 
peacefully and lovingly in the midst of other flowers 
round about, all in like manner opening their blos- 
soms to drink in the light of the sun. There was no 
part of creature holiness that I had so great a sense 
of its loveliness as humility, brokenness of heart, and 
poverty of spirit; and there was nothing that I so 
earnestly longed for. My heart panted after this, to 
he low before God, as in the dust; that I might be 
nothing, and that God might be all; that I might 
become as a little child." 

William Cowper. "In this state of mind," a 
state of anxiety and depression, "I continued near 
a twelvemonth, when, having experienced the ineffi- 
ciency of all human means, I at length betook my- 
self to God in prayer. Such is the rank our Redeem- 
er holds in our esteem, that we never resort to him 
but in the last instance, when all creatures have 
failed to succor us. My heart was at length soft- 
ened, and my stubborn knees brought to bow. I 
composed a set of prayers, and made frequent use 
of them. Weak as my faith was, the Almighty, who 
will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smo- 



154 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

king flax, was graciously pleased to listen to my cry, 
instead of frowning me away in anger." 

After this experience Cowper fell into temptations, 
despondency, and gloom. We have an account of 
his deliverance from this state furnished by his own 
pen: 

" But the happy period which was to shake off 
my fetters, and afford me a clear discovery of the 
free mercy of God in Christ Jesus, was now arrived. 
I flung myself into a chair near the window, and 
seeing a Bible there, I ventured once more to apply 
to it for comfort and instruction. The first verse I 
saw was the twenty-fifth of the third of Romans: 
'Whoni God hath set forth to be a propitiation, 
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteous- 
ness for the remission of sins that are past, through 
the forbearance of God.' Immediately I received 
strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun of 
righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency 
of the atonement he had made for my pardon and 
complete justification. In a moment I believed and 
received the peace of the gospel. Whatever my 
friend Madan had said unto me long before, revived 
in all its clearness, with the demonstration of the 
Spirit and with power. 

" Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I 
think I should have been overwhelmed with gratitude 
and joy. My eyes filled with tears and my voice 
choked with transport. I could only look up to 
heaven in silent fear, overwhelmed with love and 
wonder. But the work of the Holy Spirit is best 
described in his own words : it is 'joy unspeakable 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 155 

and full of glory.' Thus was my heavenly Father 
in Christ Jesus pleased to give me the full assurance 
of faith; and out of a strong, unbelieving heart to 
raise up a child unto Abraham. How glad should I 
now have been to have spent every moment in prayer 
and thanksgiving. I lost no opportunity of repairing 
to the throne of grace, but flew to it with an eager- 
ness irresistible and never to be satisfied. Could I 
help it? Could I do otherwise than love and rejoice 
in my reconciled Father in Christ Jesus ? The Lord 
had enlarged my heart, and I could now cheerfully 
run in the way of his commandments." 

Cowper thus describes his conversion in verse : 

' ' I was a stricken deer, that left the herd 
Long since ; with many an arrow deep infixed 
My panting sides were charged, when I withdrew 
To seek a tranquil death in distant shades. 
There was I found by One who had himself 
Been hurt by the archers : in his sides he bore, 
AnfLjn his hands and feet, the cruel scars. 
With gentle force soliciting the darts, 
He drew them forth, and healed, and bade me live. 
Since then, with few associates, in remote 
And silent woods I wander, far from those 
My former partners of the peopled scene ; 
With few associates, and not wishing more, 
Here much I ruminate, as much I may, 
With other views of men and manners now 
Than once, and others of a life to come." 

Davtd Beaixeed. "I saw that as I had never 
done anything/or God/I had no claim on anything 
from him, but perdition, on account of my hypocrisy 
and mockery. Oh, how different did my duties now 
appear from what they used to do ! I used to charge 
them with sin and imperfection ; but this was only 



156 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

on account of the wanderings and the vain thoughts 
attending them, and not because I had no regard to 
God in them, for this I thought I had. But when I 
saw evidently that I had regard to nothing but self- 
interest, then they appeared a vile mockery of God, 
self-worship, and a continued course of lies. I saw 
that something worse had attended my duties than 
barely a few wanderings ; for the whole was nothing 
but self -wor si tip, and a horrid abuse of God. 

"I continued, as I remember, in this state of 
mind from Friday morning till the Sabbath evening 
following, (July 12, 1739,) when I was walking again 
in the same solitary place, where I was brought to 
see myself lost and helpless, as before mentioned. 
Here, in a mournful and melancholy state, I was 
attempting to pray, but found no heart to engage in 
that or any other duty ; my former concern, exercise, 
and religious affections were now gone. I thought 
that the Spirit of God had quite left m$; but still 
was not distressed, yet disconsolate, as there was 
nothing in heaven or earth could make me happy. 
Having thus endeavored to pray — though, as I 
thought, very stupid and senseless — for near half an 
hour, then as I was walking in a dark thick grove, 
unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and 
apprehension of my soul. I do not mean any exter- 
nal brightness, for I saw no such thing; nor do I 
intend any imagination of a body of light somewhere 
in the third heavens, or anything of that nature ; but 
it was a new inward apprehension or view that I had 
of God, such as I never had before, nor anything 
which had the least resemblance of it. I stood still, 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 157 

wondered, and admired. I knew that I never had 
seen before anything comparable to it for excellency 
and beauty ; it was widely different from all the con- 
ceptions that ever I had of God or things divine. I 
had no particular apprehension of any one person in 
the Trinity, either the Father, the Son, or the Holy 
Ghost ; but it appeared to be Divine glory. My soul 
rejoiced with joy unspeakable to see such a God, such 
a glorious divine Being ; and I was inwardly pleased 
and satisfied that he should be God over all for ever 
and ever. My soul was so captivated and delighted 
with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other 
perfections of God, that I was even swallowed up in 
him ; at least to that degree, that I had no thought, 
as I remember, &t first, about my own salvation, and 
scarce reflected that there was such a creature as 
myself. 

" Thus God, I trust, brought me to a hearty dis- 
position to exalt Mm, and set him on the throne, 
principally and ultimately to aim at his honor and 
glory as King of the universe. I continued in this 
state of inward joy, peace, and astonishment, till near 
dark, without any sensible abatement ; and then be- 
gan to think and examine what I had seen, and felt 
sweetly composed in my mind all the evening follow- 
ing. I felt myself in a new world, and everything 
about me appeared in a different aspect from what 
it was wont to do. At this time the way of salvation 
opened to me with such infinite wisdom, suitable- 
ness, and excellency, that I wondered I should ever 
think of any other way of salvation; was amazed 
that I had not dropped my own contrivances, and 



158 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

complied with this lovely, blessed, and excellent way 
before. If I could have been saved by my own 
duties, or any other way that I had formerly con- 
trived, my whole soul would now have refused it. I 
wondered that all the world did not see and comply 
with this way of salvation, entirely by the righteous- 
ness of Christ^ 

Thomas Chalmers, D. D. " I am most thorough- 
ly of the opinion, and it is an opinion founded on 
experience, that on the system of ' Do this and live,' 
no peace, and even no true and worthy obedience, 
can ever be attained. It is, 'Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' When this 
belief enters the heart, joy and confidence enter 
along with it. We look to God in a new light ; we 
see him as a reconciled Father. That love to him 
which terror scares away reenters the heart, and with 
a new principle and a new power we become new 
creatures in Christ Jesus. 

"If I have any experience which I can speak 
clearly upon at all, it is that I am never more quali- 
fied for keeping the commandments than when in the 
fellowship of the Saviour, and resting upon his right- 
eousness ; than when under the influence of a gos- 
pel hope, and looking upon the salvation of Christ as 
all a matter of grace and freeuess." 

John Foster. " I am solicitous to cultivate warm 
and growing piety. I know that on it happiness en- 
tirely depends, and without it intellectual pursuits 
either cannot be successful, or in proportion to the 
degree of success will be injurious. That character 
is the most dignified which reflects the most lively 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 159 

imago of the Divine excellence. Heaven is the prop- 
er region of sublimity ; and the more we dwell there, 
the more we shall triumph in conscious grandeur of 
soul. Intimate communion with the Deity will in- 
vest us, like Moses, with a celestial radiance. At the 
same time I am experimentally convinced that the 
spirit of religion is extremely delicate and fine, and 
no moderate degree of vigilance is requisite to pre- 
serve it. This vigilance is absolutely incompatible 
with indolence and thoughtlessness; and these are 
evil spirits that most particularly haunt me, and from 
which I have suffered and still suffer greatly. 

" Oh for a mind all alive to religion, completely 
consecrated to Gocl, and habitually devotional ! Ha- 
bitual piety is indeed a very interesting subject ; it 
has lately often struck my thoughts. I am wishing 
to know how far and by what means it is really 
attainable. Though I would wish to concentre in 
myself all the genuine piety in the world, I yet sus- 
pect there is such a thing as a romantic religion. 
Amid the laborious, even the painfully laborious 
efforts which religion requires, amid opposition from 
within and from without, amid the intricacies that 
perplex, the burdens that fatigue, the impediments 
that obstruct, and the allurements that divert, I hope 
I am making some progress ; and I request that your 
prayers may promote it." 

William Jay. " Some persons talk of being born 
again, and of their being made new creatures, with a 
kind of physical certainty and exactness; and refer 
to their conversions, not as the real commencement 
of a work which is to continue increasing through 



160 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

life, but as something which may be viewed as a dis- 
tinct and unique experience, immediately produced, 
originated, and finished at once; and perfectly de- 
termined as to its time and place and mode of accom- 
plishment ! But I hope this is not necessary, for I 
have no such narrative or register to afford. A dis- 
tinction is not always made between depraved nature 
and actual transgression. All are sinners, and all 
have come short of the glory of God; but all are 
not profligate, nor in this sense do all speak of them- 
selves as if they had been the chief of sinners. Re- 
straint from evil is a mercy, as well as sanctification 
and good works. I cannot speak as some do of going 
great lengths in iniquity, and thereby rendering a 
work of grace more sure and more divine. I bless 
God I was from my childhood free from immorali- 
ties. I remember, indeed, one act of gross trans- 
gression — it pains me now in review ; it was the utter- 
ing of a known and repeated falsehood, accompanied 
with an oath, to carry a point, as I was intensely at 
play. For this my conscience so smote me, that I 
was soon constrained to withdraw from my compan- 
ions, and went home and retired to implore forgive- 
ness. But, though free from vice, I now began to 
see and feel deficiencies with regard to duty, and to 
be dissatisfied with the state of my heart towards 
God. I also felt my need of something more than 
was held forth by the preaching I heard. Without 
knowing the nature of this good, I was just in the 
condition of mind that would welcome and relish the 
truth commonly called evangelical. Our minister, 
too, from some things which I had said, for he always 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 161 

allowed and encouraged me to speak freely, strangely 
put into my hands a letter, which he said had been 
written to a father by a young man who had ' become 
a Methodist, and wished to convert him.' I had 
never heard of the name before; but when, soon 
after, persons of this description were reported to be 
coming to preach in the village, my curiosity was the 
more excited ; and from the instructions and impres- 
sions of the letter, w T hich was a very striking one, I 
longed to hear them, conceiving and hoping it would 
relieve my concern of mind. 

"The private dwelling which Mr. Turner had 
purchased was first used for worship on the Satur- 
day evening I attended. The singing, the extempo- 
raneousness of the address, and the apparent affec- 
tion and earnestness of the speaker, peculiarly affect- 
ed me ; and what he said of ' the faithful saying, and 
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came 
into the world to save sinners,' was like rain upon 
the mown grass, or cold water to a thirsty soul. I 
scarcely slept that night for weeping and for joy." 

John Newton. This remarkably man, who was 
" a brand plucked from the burning," describes his 
conversion in the following poetic and imaginative 
language : 

"In evil long I took delight, 
Unawed by shame or fear, 
Till a new object struck my sight, 
And stopped my wild career. 

"I saw One hanging on a tree, 
In agonies and blood ; 
He fixed his languid eyes on me, 
As near his cross I stood, 



162 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

• ' Oh, never, till my latest breath, 
Shall I forget that look ; 
It seemed to charge me with his death, 
Though not a word he spoke. 

' ' My conscience felt and owned the guilt 
It plunged me in despair ; 
I saw my sins his blood had spilt, 
And helped to nail him there. 

'•A second look he gave, which said: 
' I freely all forgive ; 
This blood is for thy ransom paid ; 
I die that thou mayst live !' 

' ' Thus, while his death my sin displays 
In all its darkest hue,* 
Such is the mystery of grace, 
It seals my pardon too. " 

Andrew Fuller. " One morning, I think in No- 
vember, 1769, I walked out by myself with an unu- 
sual load of guilt upon my conscience. The remem- 
brance of my sin, not only on the past evening," 
when, he says, he had returned to his evil courses 
with as great eagerness as ever, " but for a long time 
back, the breach of my vows, and the shocking ter- 
mination of myjormer hopes and affections, all uni- 
ting together, formed a burden which I knew not 
how to bear. The reproaches of a guilty conscience 
seemed like the gnawing worm of hell. I thought, 
' Surely, that must be an earnest of hell itself.' The 
fire and brimstone of the bottomless pit seemed to 
burn within my bosom. I do not write in the lan- 
guage of exaggeration. I now know that the sense 
which I then had of the evil of sin and the wrath 
of God, was very far short of the truth ; but it yet 
seemed more than I w T as able to sustain. In reflect- 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 163 

ing upon my broken vows, I saw that there was no 
truth in me. I saw that Gocl would be perfectly just 
in sending me to hell, and that to hell I must go, 
unless I were saved of mere grace, and as it were in 
spite of m3'self. I felt that if God were to forgive 
me all my past sins, I should again destroy my soul, 
and that in less than a day's time. I never before 
knew what it was to feel myself an odious, lost sin- 
ner, standing in need of both pardon and purifica- 
tion. Yet, though I needed all these blessings, it 
seemed presumption to hope for them after what I 
had done. I was absolutely helpless, and seemed to 
have nothing about me that ought to excite the pity 
of God, or that I could reasonably expect should do 
so ; but everything disgusting to him, and provoking 
to the eyes of nis glory. 

" I was not then aware that any poor sinner had 
a warrant to believe in Christ for the salvation of his 
soul ; but supposed there must be some kind of qual- 
ification to entitle him to clo'it ; yet I was aware that 
I had no qualifications. On review of my resolution 
at that time, it seems to resemble that of Esther, 
who went into the king's presence contrary to law 
and at the hazard of her life. Like her, I seemed 
reduced to extremities, impelled by dire necessity to 
ran ail hazards, even though I should perish in the 
attempt. Yet it was not altogether from a clreaft of 
wrath that I fled to this refuge, for I well remember 
that I felt something attracting in the Saviour. ' I 
must — I will; yes, I will trust my soul, my sinful, 
lost soul in his hands. If I perish, I perish !' How- 
ever it was, I was determined to cast mys'elf upon 



164 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

Christ, thinking peradventure lie would save my soul ; 
and if not, I could but be lost. In this way I con- 
tinued above an hour, weeping and supplicating 
mercy for the Saviour's sake ; and as the eye of the 
mind was more and more fixed upon him, my guilt 
and fears were gradually and insensibly removed. I 
now found rest for my troubled soul." 

John Wesley. " On my return to England, [from 
America,] January, 1738, being in imminent danger 
of death, and very uneasy on that account, I was 
strongly convinced that the cause of that uneasiness 
was unbelief, and that the gaining of a true living 
faith was the one thing needful for me. But still I 
fixed not this faith on its right object; I meant only 
faith in God, not faith in or through Christ. Again, 
I knew not that I was wholly void of this faith, but 
only thought I had not enough of it." 

Afterwards Peter Bolder, whom God had pre- 
pared to teach Wesley, with three other pious per- 
sons, came to him, " all of whom," he says, "testified, 
of their own experience, that a true living faith in 
Christ is inseparable from a sense of pardon for all 
past and freedom from all present sin. They added 
with one mouth that this faith was the free gift of 
God, and that he would surely bestow it upon every 
soul who earnestly and perseveringly sought it. I 
waf now thoroughly convinced that faith was insep- 
arable from pardon; and, by the grace of God, I 
was resolved to seek it unto the end : 1. By abso- 
lutely renouncing all dependence, in whole or in 
part, upon my own works or righteousness, on which 
I had really grounded my hope of salvation, though 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 165 

I knew it not, from my youth up. 2. By adding to 
the constant use of all other means of grace contin- 
ual prayer for this very thing, justifying, saving faith ; 
a full reliance on the blood of Christ shed for me ; a 
trust in him as my Christ, as my sole justification, 
sanctification, and redemption. 

"I continued thus to seek it, though with strange 
indifierence, coldness, and unusually frequent relap- 
ses into sin, till May 24, when I opened my Testa- 
ment on these words : ' There are given unto us ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises, that by these 
ye might be partakers of the divine nature.' 2 Pet. 
1 : 4. After closing the book, I opened again on 
these words : ' Thou art not far from the kingdom of 
God.' In the afternoon of the same day I was invi- 
ted to go to St. Paul's. The anthem was, 'Out of 
the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord : Lord, 
hear my voice.' In the evening I went very unwill- 
ingly to a society where one was reading Luther's 
preface to the epistle to the Romans. About a quar- 
ter before nine, while he was describing the change 
which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, 
I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust 
in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation ; and an assu- 
rancMras given me that he had taken away my sins, 
even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and 
death." 

A SAILOE, whose experience is given by Dr. M'll- 
vaine in his Lectures on the Evidences of Chris- 
tianity : 

"A well-dressed person of respectable appear- 
ance, good manners, and sensible conversation, called 



166 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

on me at my house, and looking at me earnestly, 
said : ' I think I have seen your face before.' 'Prob- 
ably,' said I, thinking he had seen me in the pulpit. 
' Did you not once preach in the receiving-ship at 
the navy-yard on the Prodigal Son ?' ' Yes.' ' Did 
you not afterwards go to a sailor sitting on a chest, 
and say, "Friend, do you love to read the Bible?" ' 
'Yes.' 'I, sir, was that sailor; but then I knew 
nothing about the Bible or about God ; I was a poor, 
ignorant, degraded sinner. I was for many years a 
sailor in the service of the British navy, indulging in 
all the extremes of a sailor's vices. The fear of 
death, or hell, or God had not entered my mind. 
One day a humble Methodist preacher assembled a 
little congregation of sailors in the ship to which I 
was attached, and spoke from the text : " Behold, 
now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of 
salvation." I listened merely because the preacher 
had once been a sailor. Soon it appeared to me 
that he knew me, though I was sitting where I sup- 
posed myself concealed. To avoid being seen and 
marked, I several times changed my place, carefully 
getting behind others. But wherever I went, the 
preacher seemed to follow me and to describe my 
course of life as though he knew it all. At length 
the discourse was ended, and I, assured that I had 
been the single object of the speaker's labors, went 
up and seized his hand, and said, " Sir, I am that 
very man. That 's just the life I have led. I am a 
poor, miserable man ; but I feel a desire to be good, 
and I will thank you for some of your advice upon 
the subject." The preacher bade me pray. I an- 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 167 

swered that I had never prayed in my life, but that 
I might be damned, when I was swearing; and I 
did n't know how to pray. He instructed me. When 
Providence led you to me, sitting on the chest, you 
showed me a verse of the Bible as one that would 
guide me ; it was, ' Him that cometh to me I will in 
no wise cast out.' After this my mind was comfort- 
ed with the hope of salvation through Jesus Christ. 
My vices were all abandoned. I became from that 
time a new creature in all my dispositions and hab- 
its, and have been for more than three years a mem- 
ber of the church of Christ." 

Charles H. Spurgeon. "I shall never forget 
the hour when I hope God's mercy first looked on 
me. It was in a place very different from this, 
among a despised people, in an insignificant little 
chapel of a peculiar sect. I went there bowed down 
with guilt, laden with transgression. The minister 
walked up the pulpit stairs, opened his Bible, and 
read that precious text : ' Look unto me, and be ye 
saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and 
beside me there is none else;' and, as I thought, 
fixing his eyes on me, before he began to preach to 
others, he said : ' Young man ! look, look, look ! You 
are one of the ends of the earth ; you feel you are ; 
you know your need of a Saviour ; you are trembling 
because you think he will never save you. He says 
this morning, look!' O how my soul was shaken 
within me then ! 'What !' thought I, 'does that man 
know me, and all about me ?' He seemed as if he 
did. And it made me 'look !' 'Well,' I thought, 'lost 
or saved, I will try; sink or swim, I will run the 



168 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

risk of it ;' and in that moment I hope by his grace 
I looked upon Jesus, and though desponding, down- 
cast, and ready to despair, and feeling that I could 
rather die than live as I had lived, at that very 
moment it seemed as if a young heaven had had its 
birth within my conscience. I went home, no more 
cast down; those about me noticing the change, 
asked me why I was so glad, and I told them I had 
believed in Jesus, and that it was written, ' There is 
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in 
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after 
the Spirit.' " 

We might multiply indefinitely witnesses of the 
class above cited; but those adduced must suffice. 
It is now proper to examine the weight and import 
of their testimony. 

Consider the number of these witnesses. "In 
the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every 
word be established," is an inspired maxim. We 
have presented more than a dozen witnesses, inclu- 
ding persons of different classes in society, occupa- 
tions, religious professions, grades of intellect and 
culture, nationalities, and of both sexes. Their tes- 
timony is of the highest credibility. They were all 
of sound mind and intelligent; and some of them 
were learned and wise, and made a deep impres- 
sion on their generations. They were not fanatics 
or enthusiasts, but sober-minded, earnest, consistent 
Christians. Their testimony relates not to matters 
of history or of speculation, but of experience. They 
speak what they know, and testify what they have 



POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 169 

felt. They had no motive to deceive others, and 
their character places them above all suspicion of 
insincerity and falsehood. 

These witnesses are all adduced to testify to a 
single truth. It is not that Christianity is true, or 
that any system of doctrine is sound, or that any 
religious rite or form of ecclesiastical government is 
of divine authority ; but simply that the gospel has 
power, and that they have experienced that- power. 
We have maintained that the gospel is its own wit- 
ness — that it commends itself to the hearts and con- 
sciences of men willing to be enlightened — that it 
secures confidence and submission to its authority 
by its own light and power ; and our witnesses give 
testimony on this very point. They testify with one 
consent that they found relief from the guilt and 
power of sin by faith in Christ. It extinguished 
their thirst for sin, healed their wounded consciences, 
calmed their agitated bosoms, and inspired them 
with the hope of heaven. In this experience, they 
could hardly have been deceived. 

These witnesses illustrate and confirm the re- 
marks made in the preceding chapter concerning the 
diversity and unity of Christian experience. Widely 
differing in details, their testimomy all comes to the 
same point. Whatever the measure of their con- 
victions, the depth of then emotions, the duration 
of their conflicts, and the circumstances of their 
deliverance, they bear concurrent witness to the effi- 
cacy of the gospel, the preciousness of the divine 
promises, and the greatness of that salvation which 
is secured by faith in Christ. 

Se;i! of Heaven. 8 





CHAPTEK XVIII. 

OBJECTION^ TO THE QOgPEL. 

F tlie gospel is a divine revelation de- 
signed to deliver men from the power of. sin, 
may reasonably infer that it will encoun- 
ter opposition. Men love their idols, and 
after them they will go. They are deluded by sin, 
and choose their delusions. They are taken captive 
by the devil, and delight in their bondage. It is 
not to be supposed that they will readily abandon 
their sins; or admit the truth and authority of a 
revelation which exposes their turpitude and requires 
their prompt renunciation. Men are ingenious in 
finding apologies for evil-doing; and if they resist 
the demands of the gospel, they will be sure to have 
plausible excuses for their course. If their convic- 
tions or their respect for public sentiment prevent 
them from denying its truth, they will justify them- 
selves in neglecting it under some plausible plea. 
These objections w T e propose briefly to examine. 

THE OBSCURITY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

It is alleged that they are dark, mysterious, and 
incomprehensible ; that those who study them most 



OBJECTIONS TO THE GOSPEL. 171 

closely are perplexed and uncertain as to their mean- 
ing ; and that it would be unjust to hold men respon- 
sible for not believing what they cannot understand. 
Let us honestly weigh this objection. 

It cannot be denied that some portions of the 
Scriptures are obscure. Paul, as did other inspired 
teachers, wrote "some things hard to be understood." 
2 Pet. 3 : 16. The Scriptures were given to men for 
the specific purpose of making them "wise unto sal- 
vation," and the truths which they reveal are limited 
by that design. They contain nothing for the grat- 
ification of curiosity, or for the encouragement of 
idle speculation. On many subjects, concerning 
which we desire information, they are entirely silent. 
On others they furnish only slight intimations, where 
we should expect minute details. The obscurity of 
the Scriptures does not 'arise from any purpose of 
God to conceal from men, or to render it difficult 
for them to learn, any truth requisite for their holi- 
ness, happiness, or usefulness. The darkness may be 
traced to the incomprehensibleness of the subjects of 
which the Scriptures treat. The existence of God — 
his works and ways — the incarnation of the Word — 
the work of the Spirit in regeneration — the resurrec- 
tion of the dead — the conflagration of the world — 
the general judgment — and the future states of the 
righteous and of the wicked — are matters necessa- 
rily beyond human comprehension. However much 
might be revealed concerning them, they would still 
be encompassed by impenetrable clouds. Only an 
infinite mind can fully comprehend these subjects. 

But even if man had the capacity to understand 



172 THE SEAL OE HEAVEN. 

these profound mysteries, there is no human lan- 
guage in which they can be clearly revealed. Words 
are bom of ideas. Men first have thoughts, and 
then seek for language to express them. But what 
do they know, or what can they know, of these mys- 
teries, so far beyond the range of their experience 
and observation? God has employed human lan- 
guage to convey to us a knowledge of spiritual things. 
By things seen and known, he has revealed to us 
things unseen and unknown. "Eye hath not seen, 
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart 
of man, the things which God hath prepared for 
them that love him. But God hath revealed them 
unto us by his Spirit." . This revelation, however, 
is necessarily limited and modified by the imperfect 
medium through which it is made. 

The obscurity of the Scriptures is in harmony 
with all the works and ways of God. He is himself 
the mystery of mysteries. Mystery is the divine 
impress. Every work and every dispensation of 
God is enveloped in mystery. Every science may 
be pursued to unfathomable obscurities. Man com- 
prehends nothing. All his knowledge and researches 
are superficial. The man who believes nothing 
which he cannot comprehend has a short creed. 
God's word, like his works and ways, is profound, 
mysterious, and not fully comprehensible. Man's 
words may be studied, fathomed, mastered, and laid 
aside as a worn-out garment ; but not God's. This 
bears the impress of divinity in its depth, vastness, 
and mystery. Could the Scriptures be fully com- 
prehended, they would lack one mark of their in- 



OBJECTIONS TO THE GOSPEL. 173 

spiration. Skeptics would says : " As there are ob- 
scurities in creation and providence, and none in the 
Scriptures, the God of creation and of providence 
cannot be the God of revelation. This does not 
bear the impress of the Creator and Ruler of the 
world." We should not know how to answer this 
objection; and we rejoice that the Scriptures were 
composed on a principle which precludes its exist- 
ence. 

There are obscurities in the Scriptures; but all 
portions of them are not obscure. They contain 
much that is plain. Fortunately for men, the sub- 
jects in which they are most deeply interested are 
most clearly revealed. The existence of God — men's 
relations to him, their duties, then 1 sinfulness, guilt, 
and danger, their need of a moral renovation and of 
forgiveness, the way of salvation through Christ, the 
necessity of a holy life, and the promise of eternal 
felicity to the obedient, are written, as with a sun- 
beam, in the Scriptures. If men do not learn these 
truths, it is not because they are obscure. The 
most ignorant have understood and embraced them. 
Little children have been enlightened, comforted, 
and saved by them. If men will only follow the 
Scriptures so far as by honest and diligent search 
they can understand them, they will not fail of sal- 
vation. 

Many things which seem obscure to the anxious 
inquirer or young convert, become clear to the pious, 
attentive reader of the Scriptures. He finds har- 
mony where once there appeared to be discord; 
beauties where formerly he could discern only blem- 



174 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

ishes ; and liglit where before there was nothing but 
darkness. Much of the supposed obscurity of the 
Scriptures is in the minds and hearts of those who 
read them. Much of this darkness would vanish 
before calm, fair, persistent investigation, like mist 
before the rising sun. 

Even the obscurities of revelation are subservi- 
ent to . the end for which it was given. They 
stimulate inquiry, and lead to research, meditation, 
and the gradual increase of knowledge. They teach 
man his ignorance and insignificance, make him 
humble, and constrain him to ask wisdom of God. 
All these important ends would be defeated, if man 
could fully master the Scriptures. Feeling that 
there is nothing more to learn, he would grow indo- 
lent and his mind would become stagnant. Having 
equalled his Teacher in wisdom, he would be proud, 
self-sufficient, and arrogant. As the Scriptures are 
composed, he can never fully explore their mysteries. 
The more he studies them, the more he desires to 
study them; and the more he knows of them, the 
more he wishes, and the less he seems to himself, to 
know of them. 

THE INEFFICACY OF THE SCRIP- 
TURES. 

It is affirmed by skeptics that the gospel is pow- 
erless, that it has failed to accomplish the ends 
for which it purports to have been revealed. The 
world, it is said, through the centuries in which it 
has been proclaimed, has not grown better but 
worse. Christian nations are not less vicious than 



OBJECTIONS TO THE GOSPEL. 175 

other nations. The church is as full of pride, self- 
ishness, dishonesty, and ungodliness as the world. 
Among those who reject the gospel may be found as 
noble specimens of sincerity, generosity, and honor 
as among those who receive it. Every species of 
vice and of crime has been committed, and has 
flourished, under cover of a religious profession. If 
the gospel were of God, its fruits would be more 
abundant and obvious. This objection is entitled 
to candid consideration. 

It must be conceded that men who disbelieve 
the gospel may be temperate, amiable, honest, gen- 
erous, patriotic, in short, everything that is needed 
to render them good citizens. It must be also con- 
fessed that its influence has not been so pervasive 
and renovating as might have been desired, and 
that its fruits have not been so abundant as, a priori, 
might have been expected. It has not done all the 
good that might be conceived or desired; but still 
it has done good, great and abiding good. 

The gospel is not fairly censurable that it fails 
to profit those who reject it. It is a means of use- 
fulness, a means wisely adapted to its proposed end : 
but, like all other means, its efficacy depends on its 
application. It cannot be expected to enlighten 
those who shut their eyes against it; or to sanctify 
those who are ignorant of it, or to comfort those 
who despise it. If men are too busy, or too care- 
less, or too vicious, or too much prejudiced against 
the gospel to receive it, it should not seem strange 
that they do not bring forth its fruits. Many per- 
sons make a religious profession without sincerity, 



176 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

or without just views of its obligations. Multitudes 
of church members have the form of godliness (some 
of them have not even that) without its power. 
They grew up in the church and accepted its rites 
and ceremonies for true piety ; or under some delu- 
sion, or from some motive of convenience, profit, or 
respectability, they entered it without faith and with- 
out life. It is not reasonable that the gospel should 
be blamed for their formalities, worldliness, and vices. 
The question which candor asks is not whether 
Christianity has accomplished all that might have 
been hoped for, but whether it has fulfilled its prom- 
ises. What has been its influence, not on unbe- 
lievers, skeptics, and persons indifferent to its claims; 
but on those who embrace, study, and love it ? Are 
there any real Christians? Are there those who 
have been reclaimed from vice, restored to the con- 
fidence of society, rendered useful in life, comforted 
in affliction, and delivered from the fear of death 
through the power of the gospel ? After due allow- 
ance for all the hypocrisies, inconsistencies, and 
apostasies of professing Christians, it must in fair- 
ness be confessed that there is a large residuum of 
piety and good works to their credit. Select the 
countries in which there is the largest amount of 
public virtue, good order, and prosperity, and you 
must select those w T here the Bible is unfettered, and 
most read, prized, and honored. Search for the com- 
munity in which there is the greatest measure of 
sobriety, uprightness, harmony, good-will, and happi- 
ness, and you will find that it is in a neighborhood 
where Christianity sheds its benign influence, and 



OBJECTIONS TO THE GOSPEL. 177 

where there are churches, and pastors, and Sunday- 
schools, and all the appliances by which knowledge is 
diffused, and piety is nourished. In every community 
under the healthful influence of the gospel, it will 
appear that the men most trusted, loved, and rever- 
enced are those who most highly value and most 
diligently study the Bible. They may be poor, illit- 
erate, laughed at for their oddities, ridiculed for 
their puritanism, and even hated for their sanctity; 
but still they are the persons whose counsels will 
be sought in the time of perplexity, whose prayers 
will be desired at the sick-bed, and to whose guid- 
ance and protection the dying parent will most 
gladly commit his children. . 

In confirmation of this view, we present the story 
following, from Arvine's Cyclopaedia of Moral and 
Religious Anecdotes, not vouching its truth, but be- 
ing persuaded, as every candid observer of human 
character and conduct must be, of its verisimilitude : 

" Two men were once travelling in the far West ; 
one was a skeptic, the other a Christian. The for- 
mer was on every occasion ready to denounce reli- 
gion as an imposture and professors as hypocrites. 
According to his own account of the matter, he ' al- 
ways suspected those who made pretensions to piety,' 
' felt particularly exposed in the company of Chris- 
tians,' and ' took special care of his horse and watch 
when the saints were around him.' They had trav- 
elled late one evening, and were in the wilderness. 
At last they drew near to a solitary hut, and rejoiced 
in the prospect of a shelter, however humble. They 
asked admission, and obtained it. But it was almost 



178 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

as dreary and comfortless within as without; and 
there was nothing prepossessing in the appearance 
of its inhabitants. These were an elderly man, his 
wife, and two sons, sunburnt, hardy, and rough. 
They were apparently hospitable, and welcomed our 
travellers to such homely fare as the forest afforded ; 
but this air of kindness might be assumed to deceive 
them ; and the travellers became seriously apprehen- 
sive that evil was intended. It was a lonely place, 
well suited to deeds of robbery and blood. No help 
was at hand. The two friends communicated to 
each other their suspicions, and resolved that on 
retiring to their part of the hut, they would barricade 
the door against the entrance of their host, that they 
would have their weapons of defence at hand, that 
they would alternate in watching, so that one should 
be constantly on his guard while his companion slept. 
Having hastily made their arrangements, they joined 
the family, partook of the homely meal, and spoke 
of retiring to rest. The old man said it had been 
his practice in better times, and he continued it still, 
before his family retired, to commend them to God ; 
and if the strangers had no objection, he would do 
so now. The Christian rejoiced to find a brother in 
the wilderness, and even the skeptic could not con- 
ceal his satisfaction at the proposition. The old 
man then took down a well-worn Bible, on which no 
dust had gathered, though age had marked it, and 
read with emphasis a portion of the sacred Scrip- 
tures. He then knelt down and supplicated the Di- 
vine protection, acknowledged the Divine goodness, 
and prayed for grace, guidance, and salvation. He 






OBJECTIONS TO THE GOSPEL. 179 

prayed too for the strangers, that they might be pros- 
pered in their journey, and when their earthly jour- 
ney was done, they might have a home in heaven. 
He was evidently a man of prayer, and that humble 
cottage was a place where prayer was wont to be 
made. The travellers retired to their apartment; 
according to their arrangements the skeptic was to 
have the first watch during the night ; but instead of 
priming his pistols and bracing his nerves for an 
attack, he was for lying down to sleep as quietly as 
if he had never thought of danger. His friend re- 
minded him of their engagement, and asked where 
he had lost his apprehension of danger. Ah, the 
infidel felt the force of the question and all it im- 
plied ; and had the frankness to confess that he could 
not but feel as safe as at a New England fireside, in 
any house or in any forest where the Bible was read 
as the old man read it, and prayer was offered as 
that old man prayed." 

Admitting that the gospel has not accomplished 
for the world all that might be expected, certainly 
not all that might be desired, still can an adequate 
substitute be furnished for it ? Has human or divine 
wisdom devised any better scheme for restoring man 
to the image and favor of God? Suppose it is de- 
signed to deliver man from the love and slavery of 
sin — to make him temperate, upright, and devout — 
is there any instrumentality so mighty and so likely 
to secure this result as the gospel? If this cannot 
quicken his conscience, restrain his lusts, and burst 
his fetters, by what other means can these ends be 
secured? Can philosophy succeed where revelation 



180 THESEAL OF HEAVEN. 

is foiled? Can the stage or the platform triumph 
where the pulpit is defeated ? If the gospel cannot 
save man, there is no help nor hope for him in earth 
or heaven, from man or God. 

Suppose the efficacy of the gospel is limited, and 
hi a measure unsatisfactory ; shall it be rejected on 
this account ? Is it not, in this respect, in harmony 
with all the agencies for good with winch a merciful 
God has blessed our fallen world ? The science of 
medicine, after centuries of study and experiments, 
has not reached perfection. Its skill is baffled and 
its remedies are unavailing in some diseases, and in 
all diseases in particular cases; and yet no wise man,- 
when suffering from sickness, rejects medical aid. 
Every science and every art known and practised 
among men is imperfect, and its results are in some 
respects contracted and unsatisfactoiy ; but no sen- 
sible person decries it on these accounts. No man 
discards agriculture because his fields produce weeds 
and briers, and sometimes fail to yield grain ; or de- 
nounces navigation as worthless because the shores 
of the ocean are strewed with wrecks. Let Christi- 
anity be judged in the fan and candid manner in 
which other things are judged; and it demands noth- 
ing more. 

THE LIMITED CIRCULATION OF THE 
SCRIPTURES. 

The most popular and plausible objection -to 
Christianity is, that it has been proclaimed to so 
small a portion of the world. Blessings designed for 



OBJECTIONS TO THE GOSPEL. 181 

mankind, it is said, are of universal diffusion. Light, 
air, water, fire, food, in short, whatever is necessary 
to the preservation of life, are spread throughout the 
earth. If Christianity is true, it is more important 
to mankind than any earthly good. The heavenly 
Parent who supplies all men with temporal blessings, 
might reasonably be expected to furnish them spirit- 
ual good. If the gospel were a divine light, it would 
be as diffusive as the rays of the sun. If the water 
of life were a reality, it would be as abundant, acces- 
sible, and free as the water that refreshes our bodies. 

The argument is specious, and should be fairly 
examined. 

It may aid us hi answering this objection to con- 
sider from whom it emanates. We wish to know 
what s} T stem of truth or of belief the objector adopts. 
If he is an atheist, a deist, or a pyrrhonist, he must 
admit that the system or the negation which he be- 
lieves is far less diffused than Christianity. All the 
pyrrhonists, deists, and atheists together form but an 
inconsiderable class compared with the believers in 
Christianity. If the objectors have the light, it is 
truly hid under a bushel. If their notions are true, 
then certainly the truth is not confirmed by its uni- 
versal diffusion. If they insist that their views are 
true, notwithstanding their limited diffusion, then 
surely they cannot, without gross and conscious 
inconsistency, object that Christianity is not true, 
because it has not been spread throughout the world. 
We do not know any class of philosophers or of reli- 
gionists who can urge this objection to the gospel 
without being self-convicted of unfairness and tri- 



182 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

fling. This reply may close the mouth of the cavil- 
ler, but it does not remove the doubts of the anxious 
inquirer after truth ; and we proceed to a more direct 
answer to the objection. 

Something is true. If Christianity is not true, 
something else is. Truth exists, whether the knowl- 
edge of it be limited or extended. The knowledge 
of most truths is quite circumscribed; and this re- 
mark holds as weU in regard to physical as to moral 
science. Man's ignorance cannot annihilate truth. 
The limited diffusion of the gospel, far from proving 
its falsehood, can at most only create a presumption 
of it, and this presumption vanishes in the light of 
analogy. 

All things most valued .ainong men have been of 
slow growth and of limited diffusion. Civilization 
is man's highest earthly condition. God evidently 
designed him for this state, and in his constitution, 
physical and intellectual, and in the laws of the uni- 
verse, provided for its attainment. But how slow 
has been its development. Century after century 
has been necessary to elevate the most favored na- 
tions to an imperfect state of civilization ; and slavery, 
war, famine, want, and suffering have been among 
the agencies employed to secure it. When we exam- 
ine the elements which constitute civilization, we find 
that they have all been gradually and tardily devel- 
oped. Every art and science contributing to human 
refinement and elevation has had its birth, infancy, 
and growth, without having reached its full matu- 
rity. Agriculture, the mechanic arts, navigation, 
the fine arts, the sciences, and literature, have all 



OBJECTIONS TO THE GOSPEL. 1S1J 

been the slow and deliberate growth, of thousands of 
years. 

What is the condition of the world in the present 
day ? Only a few of the nations have attained to a 
high civilization ; and not one has reached the high- 
est point of culture, refinement, and comfort. In 
its loftiest development it is confessedly defective. A 
large portion of the earth's population is in a state 
of semi-civilization or of barbarism. Whole conti- 
nents, and many of the islands of the sea, are envel- 
oped in ignorance, and their inhabitants gain their 
scanty subsistence from the natural productions of 
the earth, or by the rudest arts of husbandry. What 
should we think of the wisdom of a philosopher who 
should maintain that, because civilization is of lim- 
ited diffusion, and imperfect at best, it is therefore 
not the state for which man was created and to which 
he should aspire ? We should deem him a man of 
narrow views and of illogical mind. Should it then 
seem incredible that moral science and religious truth 
should make slow progress amid the ignorance, cor- 
ruptions, and debasing influences of the world ? As 
what are true and good and valuable in the earth, in 
man's intellectual and social development, are of slow 
growth and of gradual diffusion, is it not according 
to analogy that his religious knowledge should be 
slowly acquired and gradually disseminated? This 
arrangement may not be in harmony with our pre- 
conceived notions ; but we must view the world as it 
is, and no law is more clearly revealed in human 
experience, or more fully confirmed by human obser- 
vation, than that the blessings of civilization, science, 



184 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

arts, free government, and true religion, whatever 
that religion may be, are limited to less than half 
the human race. 

Christianity claims to be a universal religion. It 
is adapted to the spiritual necessities of men of all 
climes, races, complexions, and classes. " Of a 
truth, . . . God is no respecter of persons : but in 
every nation he that feareth God and worketh right- 
eousness is accepted with him." Christ commanded 
that the gospel should be proclaimed, not only to all 
nations, but to every intelligent creature on the 
earth. It contains in itself the elements of its uni- 
versal diffusion. It is the leaven hid in three meas- 
ures of meal, which must continue to ferment until 
the whole shall be leavened. The church is an inex- 
tinguishable light. The gospel, proclaimed more 
than eighteen centuries ago by the Son of God and 
Ins apostles, has been making steady progress in the 
world from that time to the present. It has had 
great difficulties to encounter. Its march has been 
retarded by the sophistries, power, rage, and cruel- 
ties of its enemies; but more by the imperfections 
and apathy of its real, and the inconsistencies and 
crimes of its pretended friends. Still, in spite of the 
faithlessness of friends and the persecutions of foes, 
its advancement and triumphs have been steady. 
Never, since the apostles were commissioned to evan- 
gelize the world, has the prospect of the consumma- 
tion of their work been so encouraging as at this 
time. The shackles forged by intolerance for the 
true friends of Christ are melting under the light of 
divine truth. The principles of religious liberty 



OBJECTIONS TO THE GOSPEL 



185 



were never so well understood or so generally re- 
ceived as they now are. The Bible, long sealed and 
denied to the common people, is now opened to most 
nations. Translated into nearly all the languages of 
earth, it is now being circulated by thousands of 
willing hands among people who have heretofore sat 
in the region and shadow of death. Missionaries 
are going into all lands, bearing the tidings of salva- 
tion, and multitudes anions heathen tribes are enlist- 
ing under* the banner of the cross. We infer from 
what God has done and is doing for the diffusion 
of the gospel, that the earth shall surely be filled 
with its light and blessings. 










CHAPTER XIX. 
CONC^UJSION. 




V 



AVING considered the adaptation of the 
- gospel to man's intellectual and moral ne- 
Jk$$£t cessities, and noticed some objections to its 
divine origin, we shall now close the discussion with 
an address to four classes of persons. 

1. TO PROFESSING CHRISTIANS. 

You have made a public avowal of your love to 
Christ, and of your devotion to his cause. Suppo- 
sing that you acted intelligently, sincerely, and from 
motives approved of God, you have done well. 
Christ requires that his disciples shall, at the peril 
of property, reputation, and life itself, confess him 
before men. Secret piety, if indeed it can be genu- 
ine, is sickly, feeble, and inefficient; yielding nei- 
ther comfort to its possessor nor good to the world. 
While, however, we commend your profession of 
faith in Christ, we must guard you against the dan- 
ger of self-deception. Many, under the apostolic 
ministry, cherished fallacious hopes of heaven. 
Against no evil did Christ and his apostles more fre- 
quently or more earnestly warn men, than against 
self-delusion. "Be not deceived" is an oft-repeated 



CONCLUSION. 187 

caution of the Scriptures. If persons were liable, 
under the clear, searching, and faithful ministry of 
inspired teachers, to cherish delusory hopes, we may 
reasonably conclude that, in these times of superfi- 
cial or false religious instruction and of high reli- 
gious excitements, they are still more exposed to 
danger. The frequent apostasies and numerous 
instances of heartless formality and continued un- 
fruitfulness among professing Christians, furnish sad 
evidence that the evil is not diminished. It extends 
to every Christian denomination. No faithfulness in 
teaching, no soundness of creed, no rigor of ecclesi- 
astical discipline, and no diligence of pastoral super- 
vision, can wholly prevent it. The self-deceived are 
aptly described by the apostle: "They went out 
from us, but they were not of us; for if they had 
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with 
us : but they went out, that they might be made 
manifest that they were not all of us." 1 John 2 : 19. 
This delusion originates in a false education, errone- 
ous religious views, intense religious excitements, a 
criminal haste and heedlessness, or the blinding in- 
fluence of sin ; or these different causes operating in 
various degrees and combinations. Men ought not 
to be deceived in their religious hopes; and with 
honest purposes, pure motives, and sincere prayer 
for divine wisdom, they will not be. 

It is of transcendent importance that the Chris- 
tian professor should not be deceived — should not 
rest his hope on a false foundation. The true be- 
liever has in himself the evidence that his piety is 
genuine. He has tasted and seen that the Lord is 



188 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

gracious. The self-deluded, however, imagine that 
they have true piety. They boast of their inward 
joys, their sins forgiven, and their title to heaven. 
How are we to distinguish between the true and the 
false, the divine and the earthly, in religion? The 
Scriptures are the standard by which Christian ex- 
perience must be tested. True piety corresponds in 
all its lineaments with the doctrine of the Bible. 
What it is in the teaching, precepts, examples, and 
promises' of the Scriptures, it is in the heart and life 
of the believer. It is from the quickening, .soul- 
renovating word of God that the Christian derives 
his experience. He yields his understanding, con- 
science, will, affections, and life £o its control. What 
it teaches he believes ; what it forbids he avoids ; 
what it demands he yields ; what it promises he hopes 
for; and what it threatens he dreads. He desires 
and aims to be, to do, and to suffer what it requires. 
There is a harmony between it and the exercises of 
his heart, not perfect, but real, conscious, and clear. 
If, then, professing Christian, you would know 
whether your experience is genuine and your piety 
vital, try them by the living oracles. " Godly sorrow 
worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented 
of." Have you been " made sorry after a godly man- 
ner;" and has that sorrow wrought in you the con- 
trolling purpose of turning from sin to God ? " Unto 
you that believe Christ is precious." Is he precious- 
to you ? Do you prize his favor above w T orldly riches 
and the praise of men? "Pray without ceasing." 
Do you delight in prayer, secret and public, and con- 
tinue in it ? " Forsake not the assembling of your- 



CONCLUSION. 189 

selves together." Do you love to meet with God's 
people, statedly and frequently, for his worship? 
" To do good and to communicate forget not, for with 
such sacrifices God is well pleased." Do you find 
pleasure in doing good to the bodies and souls of 
men ; and are you willing to practise self-denial and 
to make sacrifices that you may profit them ? " Fol- 
low me," says Jesus. Do you take him for your ex- 
i emplar, and earnestly endeavor to be humble, meek, 
patient, self-denying, pure, generous, obedient in all 
things, as he was? "Set your affection on things 
above, not on things on the earth." Where are your 
hearts? Do you prefer, and show by your daily 
conversation and conduct that you do prefer, the 
things above to those on the earth ? " The kingdom 
of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, 
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Does your reli- 
gion consist, not in forms and ceremonies and pro- 
fessions, but in walking uprightly, and in a peace 
and joy springing from the indwelling power of the 
Spirit of God ? He whose experience will bear the 
test of Scripture may be sure of its genuineness, and 
that it will pass the ordeal of the judgment-day. 

2. TO MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL. 

Your chief business is to proclaim the glad 
tidings of salvation — the gospel of the grace of God. 
This service you should perform in such manner as 
is best suited to secure the end of your ministry — 
the salvation of sinners. You may learn a most 
important practical lesson from the truth established 
in the preceding pages. If the gospel has self-evi- 



190 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

clencing power, then the best method of securing its 
acceptance is to publish it in all its simplicity, clear- 
ness, and fulness. There is a place in the Christian 
ministry for the employment of critical acumen and 
dialectic skill. Plausible errors must be refuted, 
ingenious sophistries must be exposed, the bold and 
astute enemies of Christianity must be met and 
silenced, obscure passages of Scripture must be elu- 
cidated, and the. seeming contradictions of revela-. 
tion must be harmonized; and to attain these ends 
30U will need all your learning and all your logical 
power. Reasoning has its appropriate sphere hi 
your ministry; and that sphere is neither narrow 
nor unimportant. Every doctrine, fact, and duty of 
revelation has been assailed by infidelity, or pervert- 
ed by artful errorists, and sometimes needs to be 
defended by argument. Paul "reasoned of righteous- 
ness, temperance, and judgment to come'' before 
Felix and Drusilla ; and the judge trembled under 
the power of the prisoner's arguments. Still, preach- 
ing the gospel is not reasoning. It is publishing the 
system of doctrines, facts, precepts, and promises 
which constitute the gospel. Let it be so preached 
as to attract serious attention and be clearly under- 
stood, and it may be safely trusted to do its own 
work. Its efficiency does not depend on the logical 
demonstrations, the oratorical flourishes, or the bril- 
liant illustrations by which its proclamation may be 
accompanied ; but on its innate power and its adap- 
tation to man's felt and pressing wants. It com- 
mends itself to "every man's conscience in the sight 
of God." It is a message from God, appealing with 



CONCLUSION. 191 

authority directly to the understanding and heart of 
the sinner. 

The apostle furnishes us a striking evidence of 
the self-evincing power of the gospel in the primi- 
tive times : " If all prophesy, and there come in one 
that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced 
of all, he is judged of all : and thus are the secrets 
of his heart made manifest ; and so f aUing down on 
his face, he will worship God, and report that God is 
in you of a truth." 1 Cor. 14 : 24, 25. Paul was 
guarding the Corinthian Christians against the abuse 
of the miraculous gift of tongues. It was better to 
prophesy than to speak with tongues. He that 
spoke in an unknown tongue was not understood, 
except his language was interpreted; but he that 
prophesied spoke " unto men to edification, and ex- 
hortation, and comfort." Ver. 4. If an unbeliever 
went into a church where all spoke with tongues, he 
would deem them mad, (ver. 23 ;) but if he went into 
one where all prophesied, or spoke to " edification, 
and exhortation, ancl comfort," he would be very 
differently impressed. He would be convinced, the 
secrets of his heart would be revealed to himself, he 
would be constrained to worship God, and proclaim 
that He was in the assembly. This astonishing effect 
was produced, not by strange tongues, or miracles, 
or logical demonstrations; but by the speaking of 
divine truth to edification and comfort. The gospel 
arrested the attention of the unbeliever, convinced 
him of its truth, made manifest the state of his heart, 
and led him to prostrate himself in penitence, before 
God, and proclaim the Divine presence to others. 



192 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

The history of preaching the gospel, in all ages, 
confirms the truth for which we are contending. 

"I determined," said Paul to the Corinthians, 
"not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ 
and him crucified." Few men were better qualified 
than this prince of preachers to interest the erudite 
Corinthians by discourses on philosophy, nature, art, 
or morality; but he resolved to know, or rather to 
make known among them, nothing but Christ cruci- 
fied. This was the centre, the life, and the power 
of the gospel, and he needed no other means to 
secure their salvation. While he proclaimed this 
doctrine, " many of the Corinthians hearing, believed 
and were baptized." 

The ministers who have been most successful in 
converting sinners have not been keen metaphysi- 
cians, profound philosophers, adroit dialecticians, 
brilliant orators, or learned theologians ; but preach- 
ers who, with strong faith, undaunted courage, un- 
swerving fidelity, and melting pathos, have proclaim- 
ed the simple gospel of Christ. 

The United Brethren sent missionaries to Green- 
land in the year 1733. For several years they la- 
bored for the conversion of the natives under great 
discouragements, and with little success. Dr. Choules, 
in his History of Missions, gives the following account 
of a change in their manner of preaching, and of its 
results : 

" The year 1740 was rendered remarkable by the 
change which the Brethren adorJted in their mode of 
instructing the heathen, and by the peculiar blessing 
with which that change was attended. They had 



CONCLUSION. 193 

previously been in the habit of directing the atten- 
tion of the Greenlanclers to the existence and attri- 
butes of God, the fall of man, and the demands of 
the divine law; hoping thus, by degrees, to prepare 
the minds of then hearers for the more mysterious 
and sublime truths of the gospel. As this plan had 
been tried, however, for five years with no success, 
they now resolved simply, and in the first instance, 
to preach Christ crucified to the benighted Green- 
landers; and not only were their own souls set at 
peculiar liberty in speaking, but the power of the 
Holy Ghost accompanied the word spoken to the 
hearts and consciences of the hearers, so that they 
trembled at their danger as sinners, and rejoiced 
with joy unspeakable in the appointment and exhi- 
bition of Christ as a Saviour from the wrath to 
come." 

Of all living ministers, Spurgeon is probably one 
of the most successful, as he is unquestionably one 
of the most popular. Those who have heard or 
read his sermons have been struck with their free- 
dom from technicalities, nice distinctions, unprofita- 
ble speculations, and labored arguments. His preach- 
ing is chiefly declaratory. He assumes the truth 
and importance of the gospel, and proclaims it as 
demanding the instant attention and cordial accep- 
tation of his hearers ; and, by its own authority and 
power, it quickens their consciences, convinces their 
understandings, melts their hearts, breaks their 
bonds, and imparts to them a new and enduring 
life. 

In what measure and how frequently subjects 

Seal of Heaven. 9 



194 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

relating to social customs, -public morals, or national 
interests, may be properly introduced into sermons, 
it is not easy to decide. Many topics are closely 
allied to the gospel, and its diffusion and influence 
may be promoted by their occasional and candid dis- 
cussion in the pulpit. But it may be safely affirmed 
that the preacher who does not make "Christ cru- 
cified " the chief theme of his ministry, and sub- 
ordinate all other topics of his discourses to the 
elucidation or to the extension of the knowledge of 
this divine doctrine, dishonors his office. He may 
be popular, attract admiring crowds by his preach- 
ing, and acquire a wide reputation for learning and 
eloquence; but he will fail to convert sinners or to 
win the approbation of his divine Master. 

Nor let it be supposed that the gospel is a 
meagre subject for a life-long ministry. It is a 
theme absolutely inexhaustible. In its wide range, 
it touches every human interest, material and spir- 
itual, in time and in eternity. " Christ crucified " is 
the substance of every shadow, the centre of every 
doctrine, the source of every duty, the seal of every 
promise, the terror of every threatening, and the 
solution of every difficulty found in the Sacred Scrip- 
tures. The minister who confines himself to the 
preaching of this doctrine, and draws his instruc- 
tions and illustrations from a careful, constant, and 
pious study of the Bible, will always meet his hear- 
ers with discourses, fresh, interesting, and impres- 
sive, carrying to the hearts of all who are willing to 
obey God, proofs of their truth and excellence. 



CONCLUSION. 195 

J. TO ANXIOUS INQJJIRERS. 

No man can become a Christian by chance, or 
by the mere progress of time, and without anxious 
thought and candid inquiry. The state of mind 
which prompted the question of the Philippian jailer, 
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" invariably pre- 
cedes conversion. Many, with greater or less ear- 
nestness, are inquiring for the way of salvation. 
They are troubled at heart. They have painful 
recollections of the past, and gloomy forebodings of 
the future. They have been taught by bitter expe- 
rience that the world cannot make them happy. 
They groan under the intolerable bondage of their 
corrupt lusts and evil habits. They desire to know 
whether the gospel is true, and, if it is true, how 
they may become participants of the blessings which 
it reveals. To this class of persons we have a few 
words of advice aud encouragement to offer. 

If you have the means to obtain, the time to 
study, and the capacity to understand works on the 
historical evidences of Christianity, by all means, 
give them due attention. It invites investigation, 
and defies scrutiny. In Lardners Credibility of the 
Gospel History, Home's Introduction to the Critical 
Study of the Scriptures, Paley's Evidences of Chris- 
tianity, Butler's Analogy, Coneybeare and Howson's 
Life and Epistles of St. Paul, Mcllvaine's Evidences, 
and in many similar works, you may find abundant 
proofs of the truth of Christianity, and satisfactory 
replies to the most plausible objections to it. Few, 
however, have the opportunity or the ability for 



196 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

pursuing this course of investigation. Happily, it 
is not necessary. A shorter, simpler, and more sat- 
isfactory path is open to you. The gospel has the 
power of evincing its own truth, and establishing its 
own authority. If you are only willing to do God's 
will, you shall know whether the gospel is true or 
false. If you would know the truth, you must be 
ready to sacrifice all your prejudices, give due atten- 
tion to the Scriptures, fairly weigh every argument 
in then favor, and be firmly resolved, at the peril of 
reproach, persecution, and worldliness, to follow the 
conviction of your own minds. In the commence- 
ment of 3-ouT inquiry, you may discern, not the 
proof to command your faith, but only the proba- 
bility to claim your attention. In the Scriptures 
you may find much to perplex and distress, with 
but little to guide, and nothing to comfort you. Be 
not discouraged. There is some light. There is a 
God; and the Scriptures luminously reveal his per- 
fections. Your obligations to him may be clearly 
perceived. In the light of his word, your sinfulness 
and guilt appear. Conscience will point to evil 
practices that should be abandoned;, to depraved 
lusts that should be mortified; to cherished idols 
that should be renounced, to polluted thoughts 
that should be restrained, and to plain duties that 
should be performed : and a painful sense of helpless 
wretchedness will ensue. If you are honest and 
earnest in your inquhies, you will not stop at this 
point. You will feel, profoundly feel, your need of 
a Saviour. You have wants that earth cannot sup- 
ply, wounds that it cannot heal, longings that it 



CONCLUSION. 197 

cannot satisfy, and doubts that it cannot solve. The 
gospel proffers you the very blessings you need; 
bread to satisfy your hunger, water to quench your 
thirst, garments to clothe your nakedness, and medi- 
cine to heal your wounds; but the enjoyment of 
these blessings depends on the possession of a docile 
and obedient spirit. If you are willing to be taught, 
God will guide you ; if you heartily forsake your 
sins, he will forgive you ; if you loathe your lusts, he 
will enable you to overcome them ; if salvation is 
your supreme desire, he will bestow it upon you. 
Your way then is plain. Earnestly desire and hon- 
estly seek the truth. Walk according to the light 
you have. What is wrong, avoid; what is right 
pursue. Submit yourselves to God, to be governed, 
moulded, and ennobled by him. Accept the gospel, 
will all its restraints and duties, and you will secure 
its rest and its hope. In your own hearts you will 
find the proofs of its divinity. The indwelling Spirit 
of God, with his light, and love, and consolation, 
and joy, and liberty, will make himself known. You 
will have a sweet consciousness that no "cunningly 
devised fable," and no ingenious system of error, 
could produce such fruits. The more you study 
the gospel, the more profoundly will you be con- 
vinced of its truth and excellence, the more clearly 
will you discern in it the divine perfections, and the 
more perfectly will it appear to be adapted to your 
spiritual condition. Here you will find rest for your 
souls ; and all the cavils of infidelity, all the difficul- 
ties of revelation, and all the perplexities of experi- 
ence, w T ill not be able greatly to disturb your peace. 

9* 



198 THE SEAL OE HEAVEN. 

4. TO SKEPTICS. 

Infidelity is the great barrier to the progress of 
the gospel. Skepticism, open or covert, in one form 
or another, is widespread. We desire to address a 
few kind and faithful words to persons who deny or 
doubt the truth of Christianity. 

If it is true, it is the most important truth that 
has ever been proclaimed on earth. It is impossible 
for' language to express, or the mind to conceive its 
value. All persons are equally and deeply inter- 
ested to know whether it is true. If it is true, our 
unbelief cannot make it false. It must stand while 
the throne of God endures. If it is of God, we 
conclude that it is accompanied by such marks and 
evidences as must convince the candid and diligent 
inquirer of its divinity. We dare not charge God 
with the foil}' of sending a message to the world 
without furnishing the means of testing its genuine- 
ness. If the authenticity of the gospel is estab- 
lished by conclusive proofs within our comprehen- 
sion, then we are manifestly bound to believe it. 

This is precisely the point at which skeptics 
revolt. They deny that a man is responsible for his 
faith. He must believe, it is affirmed, whatever is 
clearly proved to his understanding. Faith follows 
evidence, as light the rising of the sun. Or it is 
further maintained, that the gospel is attended by 
no such proofs as should convince the honest, in- 
quiring mind. It contains so much that is incom- 
prehensible, contradictory, or absurd, that it cannot 
command the confidence of discerning minds. 



CONCLUSION. 199 

The gospel claims to be a divine revelation, it 
has been received as such by millions of the most 
enlightened and virtuous of mankind ; and it has a 
history and a character which give it a claim to 
universal consideration. The lack of faith in it is 
not necessarily wrong. Men who have had no oppor- 
tunity to hear or examine the gospel, are not respon- 
sible for their want of faith. The unbelief con- 
demned in the Scriptures is not mental imbecility, 
or unavoidable ignorance, or an honest suspension of 
judgment; but a rejection of the gospel through the 
blinding influence of prejudice, or from wilful inat- 
tention. Before skeptics, however, can reasonably 
claim that their unbelief is blameless, we demand, 
and their consciences must confirm the demand, 
that they comply with the conditions following : 

1. You must carefully and diligently examine 
the Scriptures. Less than this God cannot require, 
and you should not offer. The matter is of too 
grave importance to be decided lightly. You can- 
not be qualified to judge of it without investigation. 
It is not sufficient that you should read Voltaire, 
and Hume, and Paine; you must read the Bible, 
with such helps for understanding it as may be 
within your reach. You must not be satisfied merely 
to read it, you must aim to penetrate its meaning, 
comprehend its spirit, and discover its excellences, 
if excellences it has. No wise man would pretend 
to decide on the merit of any science or art, without 
a thorough examination of its principles and its 
results: much less would he judge the claims of a 
divine revelation, without the most careful scrutiny. 



200 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

2. You must be willing to sacrifice your preju- 
dices on the altar of truth. The power of prejudice 
to pervert the judgment needs no illustration. That 
a revelation designed to correct the errors, to reprove 
the sins, to reform the lives, and to change the pur- 
suits of mankind, should encounter prejudices and 
opposition might be expected. Many who fear that 
Christianity is true, wish that it were false. Now 
what God demands, and your conscience approves, 
is, that you shall bring to the investigation of the 
Scriptures an unbiased intellect. You should say: 
" If the Bible is true, it is my highest interest to be 
convinced of its truth. I will, then, not only tax my 
mind to examine it. but I will open my heart to 
receive the truth ; and every interest, pursuit, indul- 
gence, scheme, association, and hope incompatible 
with its just claims shall be cheerfully resigned. 

3. If you find probable evidence of the truth of 
the gospel, you must act as if it were demonstrably 
true. Of course, we do not for a moment admit that 
there is any uncertainty of its truth ; but to you its 
truth majr seem only probable. That probability 
should control your life. In all earthly pursuits, 
agricultural, mercantile, and scientific, men, the wisest 
men, are governed, not by certainty, but by proba- 
bility. They sow with the probability of reaping, 
traffic with the probability of profit, embark on a 
voyage with the probability of reaching the desired 
haven, and swallow nauseating drugs with the prob- 
ability of regaining health. It is reasonably required 
that men shall be controlled in their religious inter- 
ests by the principles which govern them in their 



CONCLUSION. 201 

secular concerns. By the adoption of this principle 
nothing can be lost, and everything may be gained. 

Suppose the gospel to be false — what harm can 
result from embracing it, and living according to its 
requirements? Godliness hath promise of the life 
that now is; and that promise is undeniably ful- 
filled. A life of sin is a life of sorrow. The pleas- 
ures of sin, though sweet at first, are transient, and 
are soon turned into bitterness. A life of piety is a 
life of peace. The restraints imposed by the gospel 
are salutary — such as a wise man would adopt with- 
out the sanction of revelation. A life regulated by 
the influence of the gospel is temperate, pure, up- 
right, and devoted to noble ends. None can enjoy 
the innocent pleasures of the world with a keener 
relish, or engage in its legitimate pursuits with a 
higher zest, than the Christian. On none do the 
cares and sorrows of life bear less heavily than on 
him. None can meet death more calmly and hope- 
fully than he. Should it prove to be an eternal 
sleep, none will sleep more profoundly and quietly 
than he. If his hope of heaven should turn out to 
be a delusion, he will at least have enjoyed all the 
support, consolation, and encouragement which it 
could afford on the rugged journey of life. 

But suppose the gospel should be true, how fear- 
ful will be the consequences of its rejection ! On this 
point we need not dwell. If men have ruined them- 
selves by transgression, if God devised a scheme for 
their deliverance, if in the prosecution of the plan, 
he sent his Son into the world to die for the lost — 
if he has sent a message of salvation to sinners, 

9* 



202 THE SEAL OF HEAVEN. 

accompanied by such proofs of its truth and impor- 
tance as must satisfy attentive and candid inquirers, 
and if he has offered a free and full salvation to all 
who will accept it; then we need not be surprised 
to hear from the lips of the Son of God the fear- 
ful denunciation, "He that believeth not shall b9 
damned." ■ 

4. If upon a careful investigation, you can dis- 
cover no evidence of the probable truth of the gos- 
pel, it is required, as a proof of your sincerity, that 
you shall be grieved at this result. It is the only 
light shed on the country beyond the river of death. 
Bright and glorious are the prospects which it un- 
veils to the good in that land. Thousands have 
lived in hope, and died in triumph, under its inspi- 
ring light. If the gospel is not true, the light of 
heaven is extinguished, the consolations of hope are 
abolished, and the mystery of existence is impene- 
trable and bewildering. If the gospel is false, man, 
with angelic powers and immortal aspirations, is 
reduced to the condition of a brute, predestinated 
merely to eat, drink, and sleep, to propagate his 
race, to toil and suffer, to die and rot. It cannot 
be unreasonable to demand that men who have 
made such appalling discoveries shall be pained at 
then success. Not to be grieved at the extinguish- 
ment of the light, and hope, and comfort of the 
world would indicate a measure of insensibility, or 
a bias of mind unfavorable to the earnest, candid, 
and successful search after truth. 

Whether there are any skeptics, -who have care- 
fully and diligently examined the Scriptures, with 



CONCLUSION. 203 

a willingness to sacrifice their prejudices on the 
altar of truth, and to be governed by the gospel, if 
they find probable evidence of its inspiration, and 
who have been ready to weep over their success in 
demonstrating its falsehood, we will not affirm ; but 
until they shall have fairly complied with these con- 
ditions, they cannot rationally claim that their un- 
belief is innocent. It is folly, madness, an outrage 
against their own souls, and an insult to God. 

A clergyman now deceased once told the writer 
that he heard the distinguished and eloquent John 
Randolph of Roanoke say, that he was in his early 
years inclined to infidelity. At that time, through 
the influence of Mr. Jefferson, and the popularity 
of the French Revolution, it was common for well- 
educated young men to avow their want of faith 
in the Bible. Mr. Randolph said that, scorning to 
adopt opinions without examination, he resolved to 
investigate the claims of Christianity to divine inspi- 
ration. He deemed it fair, as the Bible was a 
record of the Christian religion, to read that first. 
He commenced a careful and searching examination 
of it, not doubting but that he should find the proofs 
of its falsehood. He had not read through it, he 
stated, before he was convinced that a mole might 
have composed the Principia of Newton as easily as 
uninspired men could have written the Bible. His 
conduct was not always in harmony with his convic- 
tions ; but subsequently, through all the vicissitudes 
of his remarkable and somewhat eccentric life, he 
was an open, earnest defender of Christianity.- Such, 
we judge, would be the common, if not the universal 



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